Jaeger-LeCoultre

The Vintage Chronographs belong to this rare category of Vintage JLC watches to not use an in house movement, but an Universal or a Valjoux. These JLC Chronos are a real Family, as there were some dressy ones, coming with different shapes of lugs, quite a...  

I thought those lugs looked familiar. The size at 41mm is also interesting. It is interestingt that JLC was making large watches back in the 60s and 70s -- far ahead of the large watch "trend" of today, right? This watch is more and more appealing as yoiu... 

The 70ies were crazy years, and watches followed that " state of mind "... When you have a look at the JLC production, you see some big Memovoxes, such as the Polaris II, the Snowdrop, and the " TV screen ", which were indeed big watches. The 4 ATM is a c... 

me Vlad. Splendid review despite the torture (there's no pleasure without pain?). Do you know the production figures for the 4 ATM by chance? The bezel markings may be for some sort of 12 hour event, maybe the LeMans but with 15 minute intervals for more ... 

Sadly, I don't have the production figures on the 4 ATM. There were several kind of bezels, Damien. Here is one, but there was also a decimal one. One word about the difference of treatment, which is in fact a guess I will have to check. If I remember wel... 

I am curious though, why did JLC use a "foreign" movement....... Cheers

Because at this moment, JLC didn't have an in house movement, and the Valjoux or the Universal were good ones! Best, Nicolas

Your posts are really in a class of their own! Great work once again! A very interesting and informative post! The French market JAEGER with the blue sub-dials is very appealing! I must confess that all your posts about chronos have really made me start t... 

That we could dedicate an entire thema of collection about them. 2 or 3 registers, round or cushion, gold, or stainless steel, class or sporty, small or big, there are so many variations! Though, I will not make this trip, as I have to end my Vintage JLC ... 

I've always been very cautious when approaching the purchase of Jaeger or JLC/LeCoultre chronos because there are so many convincing fakes in circulation. It can be very risky unless you know the genuine models and variations well. Perhaps a word of cauti...  

I personally saw some fakes, and some questionnable, and I speak more about the Shark than the 4 ATM... Thanks for the warning, and for the spectacular, but necesary warning. Best, Nicolas

Thanks for the headsup. It's amazing the level of fakes in the market now. There's a good post on the Hour Lounge about an Omega full calendar disguised as a Vacheron. Indeed it's caveat emptor more than ever for vintage pieces.

Just looked at the post you mentioned on the Vacheron site. Wow. It is amazing the lengths that some of the fake manufacturers will now go to create one-off fakes of scarce or rare pieces. On the Vacheron/Omega fake you mentioned, they even added Geneva s...  

It’s sad that this kind of warnings is needed, but I guess it’s too much money in it … … for dishonest people resist. This is one of the reasons I still haven’t gone deeper in my vintage hunt yet. I have a lot of studying to ... 

“Only 4 or 5 more vintage JLC’s"? Nicolas, be honest now – will you ever be able to stop?! And if you do make it and stops - why?! Best, my friend Blomman

So, my journey into Vintage JLCs will end with my 30th piece. I try to get the most representative of JLC History, which is very subjective, as some will privilege other models than those I chose, but I also have to love these pieces. 30 pieces, that it d... 

That is true love and passion, my friend! It is good to put a limit, especially when it comes down to things that are controlled by the emotional part of the brain… But I still wonder – will you be able to stop at 30..? I mean, just look at yo... 

I imagine that the reverse bezels for some of the models were designed as counters to measure time "remaining" so as to complement the chronograph feature which measures time "elapsed" - perhaps useful if you know you have only a 30min dive and want to kn... 

The 4 ATM was all except a Diving Chrono, my friend. 4 Atmospheres ( 40 meters ) are not enough to provide a good water resistance when diving. My guess is that the decimal bezel or the hour indexes were used for some different activities. But it is only ... 

I don't know about these, Nico. They seem to fall into the category of many Chronos of that era. So many brands were putting out these 'generic' style chronos, many with 72s inside, that the JLCness of them just doesn't seem to be there. Something is miss... 

This case was used by Jaeger only, not LeCoultre nor Jaeger-Lecoultre, which used another case for their Diving Chrono, the " Shark ". Actually, this is not the only watch to use an outsourced case, the other most famous example being the ..Polaris, but i... 

got a question in mind, movement of these chronos was not made in housed, why JLC/LC did develope chrono calibres in the past and only made in housed calibre until very recently? by the way, very nice and tempted chronos. stefan

My guess is that LeCoultre made very nice in house Chrono movements, at the end of the 19th Century and at the beginning of the 20th Century, for pocket watches. If you have a look at the Chrono movements for Wristwatches, at " La Grande Maison ", you wil... 

Nico, thanks a lot for possible answers... i tend to agree the Factor 1 to be possible answer! it was also happened to other brands which simply bought chrono movements from other company. Omega was one of the good examples I think! in any case, this is a... 

As they used the Valjoux 72 for their Dayto, then the Zenith, and we had to wait till 2001 if I' m not wrong to see Rolex housing their own in house Chrono Movement... PP did the same, until very recently. So, it is not exceptional at all. Yes, too many t... 

Hi Nicolas, a pleasurable report again from you about a topic I would never think about on my own. Thanks a lot! This picture that you did not know whom to credit for was strangely familiar to me from the beginning: Now I got it: It is taken from the JLC ...  

Because I know by heart the Year Book One. No, my friend, no problems with the PMs, I'm still trying to arrange all the schedules. Best! Nicolas