Jaeger-LeCoultre

I've read a really wide range of experiences with JLC service here in the USA, many of them concerning. As a counterpoint, I had a really excellent experience with the JLC boutique in NYC having the Duometre serviced. The boutique manager Sheila was awesome, she entertained all my watch nerd questions about the Duometre (and strap hardware for the Extreme Lab), walked me through the service process noting the gold patina of the movement will fade as part of the cleaning process but would of course return again with age, detailed parts pricing in case a new crown or pusher was required during servicing, and went through all the leather options for ordering a custom strap. Total time boutique to Dallas Service Center to boutique was a shockingly short 13 business days! The boutique emailed me a few days after drop off to confirm both pusher and crown were in great shape so no additional parts were needed with the service and then I received a text message again when the watch arrived back in NYC. Since the JLC custom strap lead time is ~12 weeks I brought a strap with me made by Aaron/Combat Straps which the boutique kindly installed while we settled the bill. It was like walking out with a new watch!

As for the service itself, the exterior light polish on the case and clasp is excellent, externally the watch looks new except a ding under one of the lugs from a careless strap change by the previous owner. The boutique said JLC does not offer laser welding (like Lange) so the ding under the lug remains but is now nicely finished    On the dial side under a loupe the dial, hands, markers, everything is perfect. However, on the movement side I think they need to do a better job on cleanliness. With the naked eye the movement looks outstanding but once you up the magnification I can see some tiny particulate matter/dust in the movement that I don't remember seeing when I louped the movement previously. All visible surface finishing looks great without any scratches or marks on things like screw heads so I suspect the actual process of disassembly, cleaning, and assembly was done carefully but perhaps the assembly environment isn't as clean as it could be. This is super minor and I won't give it a second thought but just thought I'd share that observation.

Overall, it was a great experience and if you have a boutique nearby I highly recommend leveraging them for service. The process was just as organized and efficient as going to the RSC but with a much higher level of personalized service and faster turnaround time. Shipping was covered both ways, I didn't need to attempt to figure out shipping insurance, and really the best part was the peace of mind of being able to hand over the watch to the boutique and feel confident that they would take care of the process end to end.

  login to reply