The Grand Reveil is an important piece of History, for every Jaeger-Lecoultre fan.

What seems to be familiar, for us, in 2012, was pretty revolutionnary, in 1989.

At this time, where the Quartz was still strong, who cared about mechanical watches?

A few people, resisting to the trend, wanted to defend the " Belle Horlogerie Fortress ".

But, even among the mechanical watch lovers, who could imagine that, for the first time, ( as for as I know ) a brand would be mad-or innovative-enough to associate two complications: The well known Perpetual Calendar, and the not less famous and popular Alarm?

Almost a quarter of a century after, what other brand than Jaeger-Lecoultre offers such a combination of complications?

Since 1989, this very special concept received different names: Grand Reveil, first.

Then in 2000, the Master Grande Memovox:



And, in 2005, the Master Grand Reveil, the only one to allow the choice between the alarm and the vibrator, through the use of a selector located between 9 and 11 o'clock:



Let's have an eye on the first of them, the Grand Reveil, which was made in yellow gold, rose gold, and platinum.

The Yellow Gold Grand Reveil, which is not limited. ( Credit picture: Antiquorum. )



The Rose Gold, which is, as well as the Platinum, limited to 250 watches:



And, a few years later ( 1992 ), the Platinum version.

I wouldn't say that it is the most elegant watch I've ever seen, with its big and thick, almost mannered case, lacking of symmetry and balance, due to the presence 3 big crowns, and the short lugs.

The case is 41 mm big, and between 14 and 15 mm thick, to be precise.

But what this chunky slihouette looses in elegance, it gains in strenght, in character, which will not let anybody indifferent.

Have a look at this very special profile!

Like its younger brothers, the dial shows an amazing array of informations: Of course, at it is a perpetual calendar, we have the day, the date, the month and the year, but we also have the moonphase ( which is not systematic ), the " danger zone " which will allow you to be sure that you're not in that laps of time in which you should avoid to set the date, for the mechanical integrity of the movement, and, on the outside part of the dial, just close to the bezel, a 5 minutes graduation to set the alarm in the most precise way.

Complete, some would say " busy ", but, at least, legible, despite the four subdials and the 8 hands:


A watch whose dial is very similar to another perpetual calendar from the Grande Maison, the contemporary Odysseus ( this last one being a " simple ", perpetual calendar, I mean without alarm:

The Odysseus, another very rare bird, in a much smaller and thinner platinum case:



On this last picture, you will notice an unusual crown, which purpose is to set all the perpetual calendar datas, which is exclusive to this watch, as the further models came with a pusher.



In fact, this crown is screwed, to avoid accidental settings of the date. And, to be more precise, we are soewhere between the crown and the pusher, due to the fact that once unscrewed, you have to push on it to set the perpetual calendar.

Clever, and more friendly than the pusher we see on the current production.

One more detail and a pleasant one, which you won't be able to see as it is relative to the sound of the Grand Reveil.

The bell is melted in bronze, which gives a deep round sound to the alarm.

One last word on the movement, the Cal 919, which is not visible, because of the solid case back.

This is as the later models, a 29, 38 mm diameter 36 jewels automatic movement, adjusted to 6 positions, which displays an autonomy of 45 hours for the Time, and from 15 to 20 seconds for a fully wound alarm, beating at the pace of 21 600 vibrations per hour.

Here is picture of the back side showing the traditional decoration of the modern JLC automatic movements:



And a rarely seen view on the dial side:



As previously said, this is certainly not the most exquisite Jaeger-Lecoultre watch, BUT the charm is here, and, historically speaking, the Grand Reveil is certainly an important and interesting watch.

I hope you had some pleasure to discover or rediscover it.

Best,

Nicolas.