Say it with chocolate: how (and why) a master chocolatier celebrates a watch by Jaeger-Lecoultre

Let's do a thought experiment. Imagine a polo game. Horses in gallop, blowing manes, flying lawn, creaking leather. On the arm of the player: a rectangular watch with turning mechanism that allows you to protect glass and dial. Bonus information: The clock is calledReverse, has a high recognition value, is rooted in the Art Deco of the 1920s. Another little twist: It is manufactured in the Vallée de Joux, a high valley in the Swiss Jura. Now the request: With this information, please design chocolate works of art that bring all these elements together and offer a new experience in taste. That, such as, is the task that theJaeger-LeCoultre, Watch manufacturer with almost 200 years of history, the Geneva master chocolatier Mathieu Davoine. It is the latest figurehead of the "Made of Makers" program of the Maison. TheReverseThis year is the focus of Jaeger-Lecoultre. AndThe four creations that combine all of this are to be experienced and cost for the first time at the "Watches and Wonders" watch fair in Geneva.

It is difficult to create new connections, we all know about excruciating transfer tasks from school. This also applies in art. It is not for nothing that the famous bon mot "is" about writing about music, how to dance to architecture. " With the "Made of Makers" program, Jaeger-Lecoultre gave the cultural crossover a fixed framework. The makers - which have so far been a perfumer, a musician, a media artist and a cook - are more than brand ambassadors. They are more like a very talented circle of friends of Bohemia, who are artistically dealing with Jaeger-Lecoult in their own way. And that is the expectation to venture into experimental areas.

Master chocolatier Mathieu Davoine has completely identified with this task. "There are basically limits to all chefs in the world," he says in the interview. "But I'm trying to say that you don't exist - and try to postpone it." Davoine has almost scientific attempts with dozens of test rounds and tastings for his edible tribute to theReverseundertaken, looking for "impossible" taste combinations. For example, after a path of refining white chocolate, vanilla and forest fruits because of the Bergheimat, the fire with exactly the right pinch of stone mushroom taste. This step, says Davoine, was the most difficult. With the amazingly different consistencies that can take chocolate, he tried to create a diverse sensual experience. The "Éclat de Caviar" is a good example of the result. It is inspired by the boots of the polo players and the shoe cream with which they are cared for. Mathieu Davoine's creation is therefore served in metal cockets. Under the surface of crispy chocolate pearls: a chocolate cream, biscuit and olive tapenade. Incidentally, the edible work of art with the stone mushroom twist has the shape of a polo ball. While flower pollen is also used in Davoine's version of a French chocolate biscuit.

What distinguishes the maker from brand ambassadors, among other things, is that prominence does not matter when choosing. Jaeger-LeCoultre creative independence and potential are more important. Unlike many cooperations of watch brands with artists, the result is not a limited edition of a jointly designed watch. So what exactly, except for cool, imaginative friends, does the fire have from the program? "We want to grow beyond our products. What we want to design is the art of living from Jaeger-Lecoultre in the way," explains marketing boss Matthieu Le Voyer. "A classic art of living that extends to the area of ​​music, to the area of ​​gastronomy, graphic design and so on." In any case, Jaeger-Lecoultre already has a call like Donnerhall in the field of watch production. As a brand that gathered all the necessary artistry and processes of the profession early on under one roof, was the standard of the growing watch industry as a division of labor with many small suppliers. You can read from over 400 patents and 1400 clockwork designed. "With theReverso Hybris mechanical Caliber 185 quadriptyqueWe launched a watch in 2021, ”says Matthieu Le Voyer,“ with which you can predict lunar eclipses. ” It is actually completely crazy mechanically. "And yet it is not enough. The maison also needs personality, and this personality goes beyond all products."

Mathieu Davoine can with hisReverse-Mage made of chocolate go far beyond what he could sell in the shop. Many customers use the friend because chocolate is often used as a gift. Similarly, Jaeger-Lecoult can live out a daring, experimental side of your own soul with the maker program, which cannot be reflected in classically elegant watches that are supposed to inspire as many people as possible. A lot of willingness to dialogue, will for cooperation and a further horizon-these are definitely part of the maker program that would look good for the whole world. After all, you can snack on a bit of it in the course of the year - if Mathieu Davoines Creations forReverse-then go on trips worldwide.