THE Premier Swiss Mantle Atmos Clock

Imagine a clock that winds itself based on changes in atmospheric pressure. This clock doesn’t need a human. It winds itself with the help of a sealed bellows of ethyl chloride. When the temperature rises, the metal spring condenses, when it falls, the metal spring expands, winding the mainspring. Due to the delicate nature of this clock, the maker invented a pendulum with practically no friction hanging off a wire thinner than a human hair. Jaeger-LeCoultre of Switzerland made this Atmos clock, the brand of a torsion pendulum clock.

Clockmakers invented clocks that ran on atmospheric pressure in the 17th century and refined throughout the 18th century. The Beverly Clock in Dunedin New Zealand serves as a particularly noteworthy torsion pendulum clock. It remains untouched by a human since 1864 and still tells accurate time.

Atmos Clock A Go-To Gift

I love this Gold and Crystal Atmos mantel clock with its modern case and the strange pendulum. Many people received Atmos clocks as gifts since the 1940s. Not the least of the ‘givers’ is the Swiss Government. The Atmos Mantle Clock served as the go-to gift for visiting dignitaries since the 1950s.

The US version in the photo of gold plating over brass with crystal has different outward casing styles, but the clock is technically the same internally since 1946. Families and companies often gave these as retirement and wedding gifts. The gift of the Atmos reflected the relationship the clock honored: an object that reflects reliability, dependability, accuracy, and beauty.

For example, a version of the Atmos mantel clock called the Moonphase, which tells the time, month, and moon phases, retails today, used, for $10,000. The same torsion pendulum Atmos clock set into a case of plated Rose Gold and crystal, is NOT accurate only once every 3,821 years.

Swiss engineer Jean-Leon Ruetter invented the Atmos in 1928 and it became commercially produced in 1936. Antoine LeCoultre formed Jaeger-LeCoultre in 1833. I love this brand of clocks and watches. They invented and patented thousands of clock movements. For example, the world’s smallest movement, the world’s most complicated movement, and of course, the perpetual movement of the Atmos clock.

Wristwatches Too!

My business manager Shawn collects men’s unique wrist watches. He loves the wizardry of the Tourbillion movement Jaeger-LeCoultre Grand Complication watch, called the Hybris Mechanica a Grand Sonnerie. That wristwatch, designed in 2009, will set you back $2.5 Million dollars. What you get on your wrist for $2.5M are treats for the ears, because Sonnerie means ”chimes.” Yes, the watch uses tiny gongs and hammers to play miniature chimes inside the watch.

Because of its 1,300 parts and many complex tiny gears, it will play the entire Big Ben Chime Song, and the Westminster Chime Song, as well as showing you the time, and the perpetual calendar for the date, day, month, and leap year. The challenge to the watchmaking industry in the creation of the Grand Complication wrist watches, is the precise engineering needed to find more and more complexity, in a relatively small wristwatch, and to solve the complexity problem in mechanically engineered miniature ways that are NOT digitally based, but mechanically astounding.

Think of it this way:

If, in 1980, your Casio beeped every hour, this $2.5Million dollar Hybris Mechanica a Grand Sonnerie wristwatch will play amazing tiny chimes. It will come delivered with its own 450 lb. safe and two back up watches. What are you waiting for?

Over the length of its career as THE premier Swiss mantle clock, the Atmos has had various models and changes to its horology, but the essential engineering is the same. However, in the last few years a LeCoultre designer developed the ‘Atmos Mysterieise,’ a most gorgeous torsion pendulum mantel clock set in a case with a base covered in cream colored shagreen (shark’s hide), and mother of pearl, with a Baccarat crystal cloche, which hermetically seals the Atmos horological movement. The case is accented with 9.35 carats of diamonds and retails for $230,000.

The value of the 1960s era Atmos is estimated at $3,000-5,000.