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Lot Essay
This magnificent Art Nouveau-style Atmos Marqueterie clock is number 1 of the highly exclusive ten-piece limited edition launched at the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie in 2008. A phenomenal virtuoso display of the hand-craftsmanship of Jaeger-LeCoultre, the clock cabinet perfectly reproduces Gustav Klimt's portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer, known as Austria's Mona Lisa.
As one of the world’s great collectors of contemporary horology, the owner of the ‘Champion Collection’ was able to acquire No.1 of the edition and it has since been kept in pristine condition. This masterpiece is accompanied by all the appropriate documentation and Certificates.
This second of Jaeger-LeCoultre’s Atmos Marqueterie clocks was made in the 80th anniversary year of the the Atmos clock. Jean Leon Reutter invented this amazing piece of watchmaking history in 1928 and it has since become a timekeeping icon, driven by fluctuations in temperature, the Atmos movement is the closest mankind has come to achieving perpetual motion.
An incredible tour-de-force taking hundreds of hours of skilled work by master craftsmen, the construction and artistry of the wooden case is quite extraordinary. Consisting of over 1,200 tiny pieces of wood of many varieties including yellow wood, yellowheart, Andean boxwood, East Indian satinwood, lemon wood, madrona burr, blue amboyna burr, tulipwood burr, myrtlewood burr are individually cut and either left in their natural state or covered with gold leaf in the manner of Klimt himself. They are then arranged before being glued together to entirely veneer the Atmos cabinet with marquetry that has a shimmering glow.The dial is decorated to complement the cabinet with 12 cushion-cut yellow sapphire hour markers, the other indexes are made of petrified wood set on mother of pearl.
Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I
Gustav Klimt’s Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I, also called The Lady in Gold or The Woman in Gold was completed between 1903 and 1907. The portrait was commissioned by the sitter's husband, Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer. The portrait is the final and most fully representative work of Klimt's golden phase. It was the first of two depictions of Adele by Klimt, the second was completed in 1912.
The Atmos Clock
The movement of the Jaeger-LeCoultre Atmos clock harvests its energy from temperature and atmospheric changes in the environment. To do so, it not only draws energy from a sealed airtight capsule of mixed gases that either expand or condense when the temperature changes, but it also requires a very innovative and amusing mechanism known as the torsion pendulum, which is inspired by the traditional clock. Unlike a pendulum clock, which requires manual winding with a key and consists of the swaying movement of a pendulum to act as a harmonic oscillator for accurate time keeping, a torsion pendulum uses a weighted wheel that oscillates in a movement similar to the balance wheel of a watch, and most importantly requires less energy to operate than a traditional pendulum clock. The Atmos clock has been very popular among collectors since its introduction in 1928 and has served as official gifts for the Swiss government. This Atmos mechanism is of course environmentally friendly and has been long before the term was even coined. It has been calculated that it would take 60 million Atmos clocks to match the energy consumption of a single 15-watt light bulb!.
As one of the world’s great collectors of contemporary horology, the owner of the ‘Champion Collection’ was able to acquire No.1 of the edition and it has since been kept in pristine condition. This masterpiece is accompanied by all the appropriate documentation and Certificates.
This second of Jaeger-LeCoultre’s Atmos Marqueterie clocks was made in the 80th anniversary year of the the Atmos clock. Jean Leon Reutter invented this amazing piece of watchmaking history in 1928 and it has since become a timekeeping icon, driven by fluctuations in temperature, the Atmos movement is the closest mankind has come to achieving perpetual motion.
An incredible tour-de-force taking hundreds of hours of skilled work by master craftsmen, the construction and artistry of the wooden case is quite extraordinary. Consisting of over 1,200 tiny pieces of wood of many varieties including yellow wood, yellowheart, Andean boxwood, East Indian satinwood, lemon wood, madrona burr, blue amboyna burr, tulipwood burr, myrtlewood burr are individually cut and either left in their natural state or covered with gold leaf in the manner of Klimt himself. They are then arranged before being glued together to entirely veneer the Atmos cabinet with marquetry that has a shimmering glow.The dial is decorated to complement the cabinet with 12 cushion-cut yellow sapphire hour markers, the other indexes are made of petrified wood set on mother of pearl.
Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I
Gustav Klimt’s Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I, also called The Lady in Gold or The Woman in Gold was completed between 1903 and 1907. The portrait was commissioned by the sitter's husband, Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer. The portrait is the final and most fully representative work of Klimt's golden phase. It was the first of two depictions of Adele by Klimt, the second was completed in 1912.
The Atmos Clock
The movement of the Jaeger-LeCoultre Atmos clock harvests its energy from temperature and atmospheric changes in the environment. To do so, it not only draws energy from a sealed airtight capsule of mixed gases that either expand or condense when the temperature changes, but it also requires a very innovative and amusing mechanism known as the torsion pendulum, which is inspired by the traditional clock. Unlike a pendulum clock, which requires manual winding with a key and consists of the swaying movement of a pendulum to act as a harmonic oscillator for accurate time keeping, a torsion pendulum uses a weighted wheel that oscillates in a movement similar to the balance wheel of a watch, and most importantly requires less energy to operate than a traditional pendulum clock. The Atmos clock has been very popular among collectors since its introduction in 1928 and has served as official gifts for the Swiss government. This Atmos mechanism is of course environmentally friendly and has been long before the term was even coined. It has been calculated that it would take 60 million Atmos clocks to match the energy consumption of a single 15-watt light bulb!.