First introduced in 1928, Jaeger-LeCoultre’s Atmos air-powered clock has been given yet another makeover. To coincide with Milan Fashion Week, the Swiss watchmaker has just unveiled two new ultra-luxury versions designed by Australian designer Marc Newson.
In watchmaking, grand complications are immune to economic downturns, and Jaeger-LeCoultre proves it once again with Atmos, its iconic clock from the Roaring Twenties.
Fresh off the Watches and Wonders fair, the iconic haute horlogerie manufacture in the Vallée de Joux, founded in 1833, has just unveiled two reinterpretations entrusted to Australian industrial designer Marc Newson: the Atmos Hybris Artistica Tellurium and the Atmos Designer 528.
Two exceptional models to discover in the exhibition “The Perpetual Timekeeper” during Milan Design Week, from April 21 to 26 at Villa Mozart, in the heart of the Lombard capital.
An exceptional perpetual movement
Created three years before the iconic Reverso watch with its pivoting dial, the Atmos air-powered clock, developed in 1928 by Swiss engineer Jean-Léon Reutter and later perfected by the watchmaking house when it was still known as LeCoultre & Cie, features a high-caliber mechanism.
And for good reason: it requires no human intervention whatsoever. Translation: it needs neither winding nor any other external energy source. Nicknamed “the clock that runs on the air of the times,” it is powered by a true perpetual movement whose operation relies on changes—even minute ones—in ambient temperature.
The clock effectively converts thermal energy into mechanical energy, which drives the balance wheel. Its secret? A hermetically sealed capsule filled with gas is connected to the clock’s mainspring via a membrane. As the watch brand states in a press release, “the slightest variation in temperature alters the volume of the gas and causes the membrane to expand or contract—which “breathes” like the bellows of an accordion—thus winding the spring. This, in turn, supplies the balance wheel with the minute amount of energy needed for one oscillation every minute. A single degree Celsius of variation is enough to ensure a power reserve of approximately two days.”
Longtime collaborator
The two new iterations of the Atmos clock were entrusted to the capable hands of industrial designer Marc Newson.
The Australian is a familiar figure at the House, as since 2008, he has been lending a hand to reinterpret its perpetual motion clock, which he himself describes as “complex” and “magical.”
A fruitful dialogue that has not only given rise to aesthetic modifications but also, and above all, to a succession of movements throughout this fruitful 18-year collaboration, from the Caliber 561 in 2008 to the first version of the Caliber 568 in 2016, via the 566 in 2010.
The most recent collaboration with the renowned designer dates back to 2022 with the Atmos Hybris Mechanica Tellurium Calibre 590.
Accustomed to exploring unexpected uses of materials and challenging technical conventions, Marc Newson thus unveils in 2026 two new expressions of the brand’s most complex collection: the Atmos Hybris Artistica Tellurium and the Atmos Designer 528.
Unmatched precision
The Atmos Designer 528 showcases anaesthetic rebirth of the Atmos 528, launched exactly ten years ago, reimagined in a new color palette, revealed by the purity of its Baccarat crystal case.
This celestial complication, viewed by the brand as “the poetic expression of time,” also offers new features such as sunrise and sunset indications, meticulously calibrated for a specific latitude (30°, 40°, or 50°).
It also offers exceptional lunar precision, with a deviation of just one day over 4,087 years. Expect to pay 44,400 euros.
The second iteration of 2026, the Atmos Hybris Artistica Tellurium features nothing less than the most complex movement ever created in the collection. This masterpiece of horological complexity offers a celestial spectacle within a glass case enhanced by an engraved map of the constellations and set with 539 cabochon-cut sapphires representing the major stars in the sky.
A true mechanical feat, the Caliber 590 combines a tellurion with a calendar displaying the months, seasons, and signs of the zodiac. True to its technical reputation, this new interpretation of the Atmos also boasts unparalleled lunar precision with a moon phase of exceptional accuracy—namely, a deviation of just one day over 5,770 years.
Ultra-limited edition of just 3 pieces; price available upon request.
Read more > Watches and Wonders: Jaeger-LeCoultre celebrates the origins of the Reverso with 9 models
Featured photo: Atmos Hybris Artistica Tellurium air clock by Marc Newson, 2026 © Jaeger LeCoultre
