An incrementally increasing wow factor — the evolution of The Master Grande Tradition Calibre 948.

Today's tip of the iceberg is the Master Grande Tradition Caliber 948 series launched as a twenty-piece limited edition. The new era of world-time models by Jaeger-LeCoultre began with the Geophysic Universal Time model in 2015.

This watch was decorated with an engraved motif of the map of the Earth in the center of the dial, where the seas and oceans were depicted with lacquer. T

he map was encircled by a rotatable disk with a 24-hour scale, while the outer edge of the dial had a ring with the name of cities located in the 24 time zones on our planet.

The Geophysic Tourbillon Universal Time premiered two years later at the SIHH in 2017, where caliber 772 was replaced by caliber 948. The map was pierced by a window revealing the flying tourbillon near 4 o'clock, and the rolling oceans were depicted using wavy guilloché. 

In 2022, caliber 948 not only made the flying tourbillon rotate on its own axis, it also orbited around the dial of the Master Grande Tradition Caliber 948.

Another change was made to the dial's design, which became multi-layered: a domed skeleton of longitudes and latitudes bearing a realistic illustration of the continents hovered over wavy guilloché coated with translucent blue lacquer. 

The masters at the Métiers Rares used the champlevé enameling technique, filling cells made of white gold to create a miniature enamel painting with key features.

The collection is welcoming a new version of the Master Grande Tradition Caliber 948 for 2024. The main updates are the introduction of a rose-gold case (43 mm × 14.13 mm) and a dial configured in green tones.

The delicate tonal transitions to create height and depth were achieved by blending opaque and translucent enamel (a total of 10 layers and over 20 hours of work), followed by the application of lacquer by hand (a clear layer and then up to 15 layers of translucent lacquer).

Like the movement and artistic design, the case has also grown more complex over the years. Satin-brushed lateral details were alternated with a polished bezel and lugs back in 2015, but the case for 2024 comprises 40 components and displays a complex lateral profile. The polished and satin-brushed elements have been joined by a micro-blasted finish in selected zones.