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| The reassuring tick-tock of the table clock has by and large been
| replaced by more modern contraptions for telling the time. Sadly, table
| clocks, once a ubiquitous presence on the mantelpiece of many homes,
| have gone the way of drinks trolleys and soda siphons. However, there is
| one table clock that has survived the tide of changing fashions and
| continues to fascinate with its perpetual movement activated by
| invisible changes in temperature: the Atmos. With no requirement to wind
| the movement, no hidden batteries, Jaeger-LeCoultre’s famous Atmos clock
| returns in a completely transparent case to reveal every detail of its
| movement that quite literally lives on air. Meet the new and modern
| Jaeger-LeCoultre Atmos Transparente.
|
| *ATMOS TRANSPARENTE*
|
| The Atmos Transparente (from atmosphere, the agent responsible for
| powering the mechanical movement) is a feast for lovers of mechanical
| spectacles. Its minimalist design and touches of Art Deco styling are
| housed in a glass box set on a rectangular steel base. Suspended in
| mid-air, the movement of the Atmos is exposed on all sides and at every
| angle through clear glass panels treated with anti-reflective coating.
| But before we review the clock, let’s take a look at the forces that
| shaped the Atmos.
|
| *THE INVISIBLE AND VISIBLE FORCES BEHIND THE ATMOS*
|
| In a nutshell, the Atmos harnesses the daily variations in atmospheric
| pressure and temperature to power its functions. No winding, no
| batteries, no external intervention are needed to keep this clock
| ticking forever. Everybody knows that engineer Jean-León Reutter
| invented the Atmos and that it appeared on the market in the 1930s, but
| just how did this idea come to fruition?
|
| [...]
|
| As Lebet explains, the concept behind the Atmos clock was hardly novel.
| Heron of Alexandria (10 AD – 70 AD), a mathematician and engineer from
| the aforementioned city, constructed automatic devices powered by hot
| air light years before the invention of the steam engine. However, as
| Lebet explains, the true forerunner of the Atmos was Swiss scientist and
| clockmaker Pierre de Rivaz who realised that heat, which causes metals
| to dilate and contract, hampered accuracy. His studies on thermal
| compensation led to the construction of a clock, in 1740, that rewound
| itself without human intervention. Countless others (including
| Friedrich Von Lössl, Charles Hour and Karl Heinrich Meier) would expand
| the concept of thermal compensation until Swiss engineer and inventor
| Jean-León Reutter (1899 – 1971) put all the pieces together and patented
| the first non-commercial prototype of a “clock that could be rewound by
| atmospheric fluctuations” in 1928, now referred to as the ‘Atmos 0’.
|
| [...]
|
| By the 1950s the Atmos clock had become a Swiss ambassador of sorts.
| Visiting heads of State, including Sir Winston Churchill, were often
| given an Atmos clock. In 1979, the Atmos celebrated its 50th anniversary
| and a Jubilee limited-edition model was released. Catering to the
| vicissitudes of changing tastes, the Atmos has appeared in manifold
| guises, from elaborate cabinets decorated with marquetry (ref.
| 226.027.2) to the more contemporary interpretation of this clock by
| renowned industrial designer Marc Newson.
|
| *SUSPENSION OF DISBELIEF*
|
| Although the rational part of our brain knows how the movement works and
| that it is not suspended in mid-air, when you look at this Atmos
| Transparente you can really feel the magic. Compared to the other
| Classique Atmos clocks in the current line-up, with their metal-framed
| glass panels, Roman numerals and closed dials, the Atmos Trasparente
| pursues a sleeker, more minimalist design ethos. The crystal dial with
| its simple black baton hour markers and elegantly tapered glossy black
| hands does not hide an inch of the mechanical action. Just behind the
| central axis of the hands, you can see the vertical gear train and from
| the side, you can see the gas-filled bellows and the large annular
| balance wheel with its circular perforations at the base. Ticking at a
| stately 120 oscillations per hour and entirely manufactured and
| assembled by hand, the power reserve of the mechanical Jaeger-LeCoultre
| Calibre 563 is ‘virtually’ perpetual.
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