Jaeger-LeCoultre revisits one of its most intriguing modern calibres with three new Master Grande Tradition Calibre 985 references for 2025, each putting technical purity and dial-side drama front and center.
Design first. The 42 mm by 13.27 mm case is classic Master Grande Tradition territory, built from more than 80 components with screwed lugs and a mix of polished, brushed and micro-blasted surfaces that you feel as much as you see. In platinum, there are two blue-dial options: one (ref Q5246580) with a polished bezel, and the other (ref Q5246508) with a bezel set with 72 baguette diamonds totaling about 3.4 carats, a task that consumes roughly 15 hours of gem-setting in the brand’s Métiers Rares atelier.
The pink gold (ref Q5242461) pairs its warm case with a soft brown dial. A hand-bevelled bridge spans the dial, while the tourbillon sits in a recessed well that adds depth and light play. The minute track and the rims of the calendar sub-dials are micro-blasted for a fine-grained matte contrast, the sub-dials themselves are opaline and shift in tone with the light, and the calendar numerals and letters are laser-engraved in relief for crisp legibility.
Then there is the little spectacle at six. Beneath an arc-shaped 20-second scale, three blue hands mounted on the tourbillon cage take turns to mark 20-second intervals as the cage completes a rotation every 60 seconds. It is a quiet piece of theater that feels earned rather than showy.
The movement is the automatic Jaeger-LeCoultre Calibre 985, developed in 2013 and here presented with a perpetual calendar and moon phase that will not need adjustment for 122 years, plus a Night & Day display. It runs at 28,800 vibrations per hour with a 45-hour power reserve. The calibre counts 431 components, including an 83-part flying tourbillon in titanium that weighs just 0.386 grams. Its heart is a cylindrical hairspring, shaped in-house, chosen for enhanced isochronism. The helical form expands and contracts concentrically regardless of position or amplitude, which benefits timekeeping in a watch that unites a tourbillon with a full calendar suite.
Turn the watch over and the sapphire back reveals careful, traditional finishing: blued screws, sunrayed Côtes de Genève, snailing and hand-bevelling. The 22k rose gold winding rotor carries sunray engraving and a reproduction of the gold medal awarded to Antoine LeCoultre at London’s 1851 Great Exhibition for precision manufacturing, a neat link between the brand’s origin story and the technical focus of this piece.
Within the Jaeger-LeCoultre portfolio, Master Grande Tradition is reserved for the most complex calibres, and Calibre 985 fits that brief without excess. Few manufactures still shape hairsprings in-house, fewer still use a cylindrical spring in a series watch. In a market where perpetual calendar tourbillons often lean hard into spectacle, this one reads as measured, even with the diamond bezel option. The 5 bar water resistance and the alligator straps are practical touches. Platinum models come on blue alligator with small-scale alligator lining and a pin buckle. The pink gold version wears brown alligator with a double folding buckle.
Collectors will appreciate the movement’s cohesion and the dial’s layered finishing. The polished-bezel feels the purist’s choice, while the pink gold offers warmth. The baguette-set will split opinion, which is part of the fun, and made for the extravagant.
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