Jaeger-LeCoultre

Jaeger-LeCoultre South Coast Plaza Boutique Dinner at Marche Moderne - Nov 1, 2012

 

This past Thursday, I attended the JLC South Coast Plaza Boutique Dinner in Costa Mesa, CA at french restaurant Marche Moderne.  JLC CEO Mr. Jerome Lambert and JLC North America President Mr. Philippe Bonay attended this dinner in celebration of JLC's new Boutique opening here at South Coast Plaza.  The Boutique is slated to officially open this coming week along with the opening of 2 other Richemont Brand Boutiques including IWC and Vacheron Constantin.  Currently the Boutique is closed off with a coming soon (see below pic).

South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa (which is in Orange County) is the best shopping center in all of the West Coast, attracting many international visitors around the world as the place to shop when visiting Southern California.  Many luxury brands have their own Boutiques here such as Chanel, Hermes, Louis Vuitton, Harry Winston, Chopard, Bulgari, Tiffany & Co., Balenciaga, Valentino, among others.  JLC is part of Richemont and many Richemont brands already have their own Boutiques here such as Cartier, Montblanc, Van Cleefs & Arpel, and Piaget.  Now with the opening of JLC, IWC, and Vacheron Constantin Boutiques, it is safe to say SCP has turned into Richemont capital.  Panerai is part of the Richemont family; and being a huge Panerai fan myself, I hope someday to have a Panerai Boutique here as well since all the other watch related Richemont brands are represented here with their own Boutiques.

In any case, cocktail hour started at 6:30pm and we had the large room in the back of Marche Moderne.  The patio area outside was sectioned off for cocktail hour as well, and below is a picture of our venue for the night.  I've eatten here many times before; and for those in Orange County who haven't dined at Marche Moderne, they offer a fabulous 3-course $20 lunch prix fixe here during the weekday.  Wines offered by the glass here are pretty good too.

 

Inside we have long rectangular mirror tables decorated with a plethora of lovely roses.  Each person's seating was ornate and meticuously set for a visual delight for his/her eyes.  JLC watches are displayed at the left side for guests to see and touch. 

 

Look at this amazing table setting!  It smelled like heaven when you sat down because the heat from the candles intensified the savory rose smell.  Here's a shot of the lovely Belinda Mayo's (JLC Marketing in NY) table setting.

Before it got too crazy, I took shots of the watches here for the evening.  The theme of the night was the ladies' JLC Rendez-Vous collection, hence all the roses as decoration.  Along with JLC, our other co-host of the night was Ms. Michelle Janavs who runs the Michelle Janavs Foundation in Newport Beach.

Below are the watches from the Rendez-Vous collection.  For more info about the Rendez-Vous collection with Diane Kruger as the face for this line, click on the following link: jlc.watchprosite.com . 

Also on display were several pieces from the Jaeger-LeCoultre Joaillerie collection. 
What's an event without the high horology pieces right such as tourbillons, minute repeaters, and perpetual calendars?  Here are pictures of the JLC masterpieces for the night such as the Master Tourbillon.Here's a beautiful piece - the 40mm JLC Master Eight Days Perpetual in stainless steel.  And to the right is the pink gold version w/ skeletonized movement (sorry for the blurred picture).

More guests arrive and it's starting to get packed in the room.  We were supposed to congregate at the outside patio area but guess everyone wanted to chat inside.

Mr. Lambert, Mr. Bonay, and Mrs. Mayo (left to right) are chatting with the high profile VIP guests tonight.  Ms. Michelle Janavs is on the very right.

The waitstaff walked around with tasty hors devours to munch on with your glass of red, white, or champagne.  Here are a couple shots of the hors devours that night.

Everyone has arrived and it's really packed inside.  Here are a few more pictures of the guests before we start heading to our seats.



We all sit down and here's tonight's dinner menu.  I had to put my DSLR away since there was no room on the table for it, so all the following pictures were taken from my camera phone so pardon the pixelation since the venue was dimly lit. 

Mr. Lambert gives the dinner's opening words.  I took a video and pardon the waiter who blocked me twice during his speech Food was very good, and I especially enjoyed my "Domestic Kobe Pork Tenderloin Paillard" (3rd picture below).Service was great and the wait staff always paid attention to my water and endless filling of red wine.  Thanks once again to Jaeger-LeCoultre and Ms. Janavs for this wonderful dinner at Marche Moderne, and I wish JLC the best of success with their new South Coast Plaza Boutique opening this week!  For us OC'ers, the opening of new Richemont Boutiques including this JLC Boutique is a great respite from having to make the long drive up to Beverly Hills.Hope you enjoyed my report, and thanks for taking the time to read it.  This message has been edited by AnthonyTsai on 2012-11-04 20:39:06