The regulating organ is perhaps the most Important part of a movement. Composed of the balance wheel and the hairspring, it Is the alement that we find so mesmerizing ta observe in mechanical calibers - Its beating heart.
The expansion and contraction of the hairspring controls the back-and-forth oscillations of the balance wheel and the regularity of those oscillations- known as isochronism - Is crucial to accurate timekeeping.
The shape of the hairspring and the curves af both attachment points determine the way that it expands and contracts, and most movoments use flat spiraisprings. As one of the very fow Manufactures with the expertise to shape its own hairsprings, Jaeger-LeCoultre has undertaken deep research to discover the shapes that produce the most concentric oscillations- which may differ from one caliberto another.
Recognizing
that the effect of gravity also has an impact on the
finely tuned balance of a watch mechanism, they have also studied the regulating organ as a whole. They found a solution in the tourbilion. A device that had been largely neglected since its invention at the end of the lath century until the latter part of the 20th century, the fourbilion counters the affects of gravity by rotating the balance wheel within a cage.
In 1946, Jaeger-LeCoultre's first tourbilion movement- Caliber
170 - won the Neuchâtel Observatory chronometry competition;
In 1993 the Maison created Its first tourbilion wristwatch and in 2004, It developed the ground-breaking Gyrotourbition which rotates in multiple axes.