Atmos Clock

The Atmos clock may never need rewinding, getting its energy from small temperature changes and atmospheric pressure changes

Reinvented by Australian designer Marc Newson, its balanced design borders on minimalist. Its Baccarat crystal case houses a new movement, the Jaeger-LeCoultre 566 Calibre, which in addition to indicating the hours and minutes, also displays the month, equation of time and a splendid view of the night sky as viewed from the Northern Hemisphere. It also includes an indication of the cardinal points and astrological signs.

The power source for the Atmos 566 Calibre clock is a hermetically sealed capsule containing a mixture of gas and liquid ethyl chloride, which expands into an expansion chamber as the temperature rises, compressing a spiral spring; with a fall in temperature the gas condenses and the spring slackens. This motion constantly winds the mainspring. A temperature variation of only one degree in the range between 60 and 86 degrees Fahrenheit, or a pressure variation of 3 mmHg, is sufficient for two days' operation.

In order to run the clock on this small amount of energy, everything inside the Atmos has to work in as friction-free a manner as possible. For timekeeping it uses a torsion pendulum, which consumes less energy than an ordinary pendulum. The torsion pendulum executes only two torsional oscillations per minute, which is 1/60th the rate of the pendulum in a conventional clock.

There are several configurations available, with a price range starting at $2,600.

Jaeger LeCoultre