The appointment of Gabriel Attal to the post of Prime Minister by Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday January 9, 2024 surprised many people, whether in the political sphere, in the media or among the general public. This is certainly not much, some will say, given the choice to promote Rachida Dati to the head of the Ministry of Culture on Thursday, January 11, but we must admit that seeing a young man of 34 settle in at a such a high rank in French responsibilities is anything but banal. Throughout the Ve Republic, started in 1958, only Laurent Fabius in July 1984 had been appointed Prime Minister under 40 years old. He was then 37 years old and broke the record of Jacques Chirac, promoted in May 1974 at the age of 41. Gabriel Attal is therefore ahead of his time. And it is precisely this time that interests us today.
Always ready to work – he only sleeps four hours and even has several sleepless nights in a row, we learn this week Le Figaro Magazine -, Gabriel Attal always keeps the notion of time on his wrist. For several years, he has put the same watch on his wrist and wears it whatever the circumstances. From his first speeches as Prime Minister at Matignon, traveling with Gérald Darmanin, Minister of the Interior, when he sat in the Assembly, in the Council of Ministers or visiting salons at Porte de Versailles as Minister of the ‘National Education… Gabriel Attal does not take off his vintage luxury watch.
A Jaeger-LeCoultre watch from 1998 for Gabriel Attal
On his left wrist proudly sits a Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Control Chrono, with a leather strap, which does not seem to be the original if we rely on the photos of the new Prime Minister. According to our colleagues at Point, the watch was given to him by his father, who died at the age of 66 on November 12, 2015. As its name suggests, this Master Control Chronograph is a chronograph, with three counters: 12 hour counter at 3 o’clock, seconds counter at 6 o’clock and 30 minutes counter at 9 o’clock. We also note a date window at 4 o’clock, a great originality. And the tachymeter scale which surrounds the indexes. The mechanical movement is caliber 630, regulated by quartz. According to the information we were able to collect from the Jaeger-LeCoultre brand, Gabriel Attal’s watch dates from 1998 (Ref. 145.2.31) and has a 34 mm 18-carat pink gold case (the dial is silver ). A small format that is very fashionable today, as Timothée Chalamet recently demonstrated with his 23 mm Cartier Panthère.
