The new Jaeger-LeCoultre Yearbook now available
By MyWatch
Every year since 2007, the Jaeger-LeCoultre Manufacture has published its Yearbook, a large-format, richly-illustrated book that draws inspiration from the latest activities of the prestigious watchmakers from the Vallée de Joux in order to provide access to broader cultural and artistic horizons.
Giving credit where credit is due, Jaeger-LeCoultre dedicates its fifth opus to the Reverso. In celebration of the 80th anniversary of the legendary reversible timepiece, this magnificent publication unveils some of the rarest, most emblematic models to be created since 1931. It magnifies these beautiful mechanisms and tells the history of Reverso models engraved with the royal emblems of kings and princes. The YEARBOOK FIVE also highlights one of the most important aspects of the Reverso: duality. Originally invented to protect the timepiece during polo matches, from the very beginning the system that swivels the case, went beyond a simple protective function. The back of the timepiece has been interpreted in a multitude of manners: personalisation, adornment of the mechanism, second time zone, gem-setting, etc. Taking this front-back experimentation as a starting point, the YEARBOOK FIVE presents original views of the world and its protagonists.
Under the gaze of Italian quick-change artist Arturo Brachetti, the pen of Russian journalist Eduard Dorozhkin, French art historian Joël Busca and American photographer Mary Ellen Mark, this art book goes beyond mere appearances. From backstage at the Bolshoi to Icelandic volcanoes via Argentina and Africa, it strives to lift the masks and reveal all. But behind each mask, are there not other masks? Duality always brushes with identity. How can one distinguish between a set of twins? Metamorphosis and shocks in the primary elements: duality produces an echo and mirror effect that generates meaning. As jubilant as the Reverso, this publication takes pleasure in overturning, surprising, seducing, toying with what is visible and predictable.
Worthy of gracing the bookcases of those who love art and watchmaking and an essential edition for all Jaeger-LeCoultre enthusiasts, the YEARBOOK FIVE draws its inspiration from the reversible nature of the Reverso. Its charm, however, remains irreversible.
In this fifth edition of the Yearbook, Jaeger-LeCoultre is proud to published pictures of Astrid Muñoz
“My assignment was about Duality. So I did a series of portrait of the young and the old gauchos. There is so much history on the wrinkles of an old face. It obliges you to picture what sort of life this person lived.
I have been taking pictures in Argentina for the past 4 years. I am fascinated with the country life and the tradition of the gauchos : their art, their clothing, their regalia, their customs, even their language. I travel all over Argentina looking for a glimpse into their past, which eventually will disappear, to the computers, supermarket, satellites antenna, 2 floor houses, automobiles and city life.
The old man is Tito Lezano, the most well-known groom in the history of Argentinian polo. He just died in August. He has been working for more than 50 years and has been to All the “Abierto’s” in Palermo and the “Cup of America”. He comes from the Pampas.
The traditional clothes of the gauchos are encouraged during the “Festival de la tradicion”, which happens in San Antonio de Areco, every November. I have been going for the past 4 years. Here, whole families ride for days from all over Argentina by horse, and arrive to town dressed up accordingly to the traditions of old days past. Hundreds of families stay the weekend and dance all night and eat their asados, recreating “the old days” and keeping the tradition.
The adult gaucho in action. Doing a ” jineteada” or buck riding. It was done in the authentic corral for buck riding. And again and again, the rider falls and gets back on the horse quickly to ride it again. They do this for hours, having fun and bonding with his fellow mates.
The sunset pictures-at the end of the day in the “campo” the men get together to round up the cattle. “
About Astrid Muñoz
Astrid Muñoz, (1974) who was a regular, as a top model, in the most popular fashion magazines of the world in the 90’s. Fell in love with BW printing and took off with Photojournalism course with Magnum photographer’ Joseph Rodriguez, at ICP institute in NYC. From taking pictures in the Mexican dessert, through the mountains of Machu Pichu, the valleys in the Massai Mara to the Pampas of Argentina she has captured the essence of these countries and their people, with their customs and folklore.
Back in in 2008, she decided to pursue fashion photography in Paris, her work is a regular fixture in some of the most important European fashion magazines. Her work has appeared in Vogue, GQ, Vanity Fair, Tatler, Marie Claire, and Vissionaire. She loves bringing fashion to the wild places in nature.
She is currently working on a book about the Gauchos of Argentina and their lost art. She just got back from the Amazon jungle, where she spent two weeks living in the deep jungle with a tribe, sleeping in hammocks under the canopy of the trees and eating crocodiles and bugs for lunch.
Astrid resides now between England and Argentina.
Publication is available at Jaeger-LeCoultre’s e-Library, as well as Jaeger-LeCoultre Boutiques throughout the world.
