Introducing Jaeger-LeCoultre & Marc Newson Team Up On A Trio Of Complicated Clocks

Just as Watches and Wonders 2026 wrapped up in Geneva on the 20th of April, it passed the baton to another important trade fair: the Salone del Mobile, the leading international event for the design industry, which is taking place in Milan from the 21st to the 26th. And Jaeger-LeCoultre has appeared at both. Not content with debuting some incredibly complicated wristwatches in Switzerland, JLC has followed things up in Italy with an immersive exhibition called 'The Perpetual Timekeeper', which pays tribute to the Maison’s long-standing creative collaboration with acclaimed industrial designer, Australia's very own Marc Newson.

As part of this celebration, Newson and JLC have also unveiled a trio of collaborative timepieces: two Atmos clocks and a new travel clock, which represent some of the boldest non-wrist-worn creations the designer and watchmaker have ever crafted together.

First up, we have the Atmos Hybris Artistica Tellurium by Marc Newson, which is a stylish new take on the most complicated Atmos clock to date. For those unfamiliar with the concept, a tellurium (also sometimes called a tellurion) is a mechanical timepiece that acts as a miniature planetarium, simulating the annual orbit of the Earth around the Sun, the Earth's 24-hour rotation, and the moon's monthly orbit. The Calibre 590 further unites these functions with month, season and zodiacal calendar indications, as well as an extremely accurate moonphase that deviates by only one day over 5,770 years, and boasts a calendar will not need adjusting until the year 2416. On top of all that, it's an Atmos clock, meaning it provides essentially perpetual timekeeping. It's pretty impressive.

It's also an extremely beautiful objet d'art. As JLC puts it, Marc Newson chose more contemporary finishes for the Atmos Hybris Artistica Tellurium "to create an aesthetic tension that perfectly balances tradition and modernity". Galvanised aluminium, a favourite Newson material, forms the hours and minutes ring, flanked by curvaceous arcs of sapphire crystal, plus a sapphire under-dial with engravings of zodiac signs. The Earth-Moon ring is formed out of meteorite, with the Earth within being miniature-painted by hand in Jaeger-LeCoultre’s Métiers Rares atelier.

The body of the clock is encased in a glass globe, which has been engraved with a map of the 64 constellations visible mainly in the Northern Hemisphere and directly inset with 539 cabochon-cut sapphires representing the principal stars, which appear to be invisibly set.

There's an interesting juxtaposition here with the Atmos Hybris Artistica Tellurium: Newson's aesthetic is typically one that emphasises purity of form and minimal ornamentation, so to see him grapple with an inherently extremely complicated, traditional-leaning timepiece is interesting, to say the least. The outcome is surprisingly coherent, though. It's not minimalist by any means; rather, I'd call it beautifully restrained. It's also very Newson, with his love of curves on full display. 

The Atmos Hybris Artistica Tellurium by Marc Newson is a limited edition of 3 pieces, with pricing upon request.

Slightly more aesthetically restrained is the Memovox Travel Clock by Marc Newson, which pays tribute to JLC's long history of producing travel and carriage clocks, especially Memovox alarm clocks (We love travel clocks here at Hodinkee, famously.) If the Atmos Hybris Artistica Tellurium is Newson having a go at maximalism, the Memovox Travel Clock is Newson at his minimal best: using unexpected forms and materials to turn something very traditional into something pleasingly contemporary.

Unlike basically any travel clock you might be used to, it's cased in titanium, with an all-new manually wound movement within, the calibre 256. It offers a 12-day power reserve, with the 12 coloured segments above each hour marker forming a power reserve indicator - when fully wound, all 12 indicators are orange, with each segment changing to blue as each hour of power is reduced. It's a deceptively simple system, facilitated by a new mechanism developed and patented by JLC comprising two intertwined helicoidal rings: a mobile ring in orange and a fixed ring in blue. You wind the watch by way of a peripheral crown - that is, you twist the knurling around its periphery rather than a traditional crown. The hands and alarm marker are also filled with Super-LumiNova, another modern touch.

While the clock is perfectly functional on its own - it has a fold-out stand integrated into its caseback - it comes with three accessories crafted by Italian luxury leather workshop Maison Schedoni, best known as the creator of bespoke leather luggage for high-end car makers including Lamborghini, Rolls-Royce and Ferrari (and has even made F1 car seats for the latter). There's a travel pouch, which in turn can be housed within a larger travel pack that can hold three wristwatches and a set of tools,  as well as a dedicated display stand for when the clock is at home. All are made from tan-coloured, natural open-pore cowhide leather, which contrasts nicely with the contemporary feel of the clock itself.

The Memovox Travel Clock by Marc Newson is a limited production model of just 100 numbered pieces worldwide per year, and retails for 51,500 AUD.

Last but not least, Newson has turned his attention to a new take on his well-known Atmos Designer Calibre 568, reimagining what is inarguably one of the best-known iterations of the Atmos with a new monochromatic colour scheme. The original from 2016 had blue highlights with large expanses of untinted sapphire crystal: this sequel is a bit moodier, dropping the blue in favour of a dark grey hour and minute ring. It also adds new technical functions, namely displays of sunrise and sunset times and equation of time indicators.

The clock itself is encased in a beautiful hand-blown Baccarat crystal case meant to evoke a melting ice cube. JLC explains that its design required almost four years of research and development and is actually a single, solid piece of crystal, save for a removable sheet of glass that allows access to the mechanism if necessary.

The Atmos Designer Calibre 568 by Marc Newson is a limited production piece of just 50 examples worldwide per year, and retails for 68,000 AUD.

Marc Newson is one of Australia's greatest modern cultural exports, and might just be the world's best-known living industrial designer. Even still, it's incredibly buoying to see his work - horological or otherwise - celebrated in such lavish style by Jaeger-LeCoultre and the Salone del Mobile.

As for the three clocks, they're all special in their own way. The Atmos Hybris Artistica Tellurium is, quite simply, ludicrous: as impressive in its complexity as its largess. The Memovox Travel Clock, too, is beautifully contradictory, being both utilitarian and luxurious all at once. Of the three, however, I'd most want the Atmos Designer Calibre 568 in my collection - maybe because it's the one that feels most purely 'Marc Newson'.

Jaeger-LeCoultre and Marc Newson's ‘The Perpetual Timekeeper’ will run from 21–26 April 2026 at Villa Mozart, via Mozart 9, 20122 Milan and is open to the public free of charge from 10 am to 6:30 pm daily. Visitors may register online in advance here or on arrival at the exhibition.