A masterpiece of watchmaking
For us, the Atmos by Jaeger-LeCoultre is one of the most beautiful and technically sophisticated watches ever made. The principle of building a watch that generates its energy solely from fluctuations in air pressure and temperature was invented by an engineer named Jean-Léon Reutter in the late 1920s. These first Atmos watches with a mercury motor are now highly sought-after collector’s items and extremely rare.
Jaeger-LeCoultre purchased this patent at the time and developed it further. In the 1930s, the mercury motor was replaced by the nitrous oxide motor still in use today. If you would like to learn more about the history and function of the Atmos, we recommend the book “Living on Air – The History of the Atmos Pendulum Clock” by Jean Lebet.
A little tip: if you write to Jaeger-LeCoultre directly and reveal yourself to be an Atmos fan, you may be sent a copy. If you want to know what era your Atmos comes from, simply google the serial number (stamped on the top) and you will find a list of the years of manufacture.
In our opinion, the Atmos clocks from the 1940s and 1950s have the best movement quality, but of course, more recent Atmos clocks are also very high quality and therefore wonderful collector’s items.
A long life
We can say that the Atmos really does have excellent accuracy. It is actually a very robust clock—according to an old advertisement by the manufacturer, it can even run for over 600 years without maintenance. This is difficult to verify, but if you follow a few simple rules, you are sure to enjoy the clock for a very long time:
The Atmos’s greatest enemy is a watchmaker who is not familiar with this clock (but who wants to send the clock to the manufacturer if there are problems? That can cost a fortune. Our watchmaker is the “Master of Atmos,” a specialist). The Atmos’s second greatest enemy is the housewife. Cleaning and cleaning products have damaged many clocks. Rules for stress-free enjoyment of your Atmos: Never move it when it is not locked, do not expose it to direct sunlight (e.g., on a windowsill). In addition, the clock should be placed in a location that is as vibration-free as possible and the balance should be optimally aligned. That’s it.
Here you can see our collection at a glance: ATMOS
