The Origins Of Time

In its enlightening new exhibition, "The Stellar Odyssey", watchmaker Jaeger-LeCoultre traces its 190-year history in celestial timepieces. Renée Batchelor reports from Dubai

- Renée Batchelor

In early February, I found myself in Dubai, in the middle of a cool “winter”. Yes, the desert city actually has temperatures that dip as low as 19 deg C in the evening, something I experienced on my first evening there. Dubai was the fitting backdrop for a new exhibition by Swiss watchmaking House Jaeger-LeCoultre called “The Stellar Odyssey” that ran till 23 February at the Dubai Fountain, an iconic attraction near the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building.

The choice of Dubai as the first stop in what will be an ongoing, travelling exhibition is no accident. Says Catherine Renier, the CEO of Jaeger-LeCoultre, “Historically, the Middle East has played a very important role in the origin of time calculation. And that bond continues today—when you go to the desert to look at the sky and observe the cosmos. So there is a very strong link between the region and astronomy, and having ‘The Stellar Odyssey’ exhibition open here felt like a perfect fit.”