“It seems to be alive – you feel like the pendulum senses your presence – which I find strangely comforting.” On one hand is all the talent and aesthetics of acclaimed designer Marc Newson, on the other, Jaeger-LeCoultre and its legendary savoir-faire, capable of yielding the Atmos. This is what the iconic pendulum hinges on, silently using the slightest variations in temperature to keep going. It’s said that this mechanism fascinated all those who, like Leonardo DaVinci, sought to imagine a device that could sustain perpetual motion. Ever since 2008, these two elements came together around a common creative energy to give shape to an exceptional interpretation of the Atmos. After 8 years of work, the result is of a limpid, almost divine beauty.
“I was thrilled to have been asked to design an Atmos because it is a timepiece that I have loved since I first saw one when I was in my early teens. An Atmos for me is a complex and magical object, it seemingly runs on perpetual motion or the closest thing to it,” confides Marc Newson. This pendulum certainly keeps with the times – the Atmos 568 is an exceptional piece with arresting purity, liquid and transparent in equal measure. But without the workshops of Baccarat, this piece would have never come to life under a crystal globe that gives it the impression of floating in mid-air while allowing light to pass.
Even better, as masterfully-worked of a piece it is, the Atmos 568 plays a constant game with light through its movement designed by the hands of Jaeger-LeCoultre’s artisans. Worked with a matte, polished, brush effect, the movement boasts a number of bright spots, evidenced by the light that passes through the crystal. Marc Newson is behind the choice of crystal, as he admired its aesthetic qualities and ultimate rendering. Composed like a journey into the confines of a pendulum, the Atmos 568 is intriguing with its extreme transparency, all while drawing many a curious eye to its tangled web of subtly revealed cogs and works. One could spend hours simply watching the time go by.
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