The Breitling Watch Source Forums

I didn't want to hijack Arthur's vintage thread and figured I would post my vintage story in a new thread.

I had been looking for a nice dress watch to add to my collection in a gold case with black dial and figured I would look for a nice vintage piece to fulfill that need. The main reason I was looking for a "Dresser" was to wear with a suit to my daughter's college graduation in May. Several days of researching and talking to a couple folks much more knowledgeable than myself on the "Vintage" subject, resulted in a piece that piqued my interest. After some advice from my "Subject Matter Experts", negotiating, and verification I finally decided to pull the trigger on this piece.

It's a 1954 10k Gold filled LeCoultre (JLC) Memovox Alarm with the 489 windup movement which was just recently serviced. As is typical of that era, it's rather small compared to today's standards measuring in at 33mm. The seller also provided a nice brown Croc strap and a 10k gold filled bracelet as well in the package. As I'm not really into "That" much gold, I'm sure it will see more time on the Croc rather than the bracelet, but it's nice to have the option.

As I mentioned above, it is considered a LeCoultre, meaning that even though the movement was originally supplied by JLC, it was cased in the States. It was explained to me that JLC did this at the time to get around the import tax issue and sent movements to the States for casement. There was another company in the States which made the cases and installed the movements and were then designated LeCoultre to signify they were from the USA market. At any rate this marks my second JLC piece and will compliment my modern JLC Master Compressor Memovox Alarm nicely I think.

If any of ya'll "Vintage" folks have more to add on the subject of LeCoultre vs JLC, please feel free to share what you know on the subject.

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Now we're talkin...

Great piece you've got there... thanks for the review. I've been looking at one myself. I youtubed a video of the alarm and it's got a great sound... they don't call it the "cricket" for nothing... Personally I like the pieces that just say LeCoultre instead of Jaeger added to it... perhaps that should explain why I'm so enamored with new LE that's coming out.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but you have two crowns to wind the watch and the alarm correct? So assuming the alarm is not wound, it wouldn't go off?

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"I don't got the bright watch I got the right watch" -Jay Z

Thank you jlee....Yes sir that would be correct, the second crown is for winding the alarm/setting it and if not wound it would not go off. I missed out on one before this one which had a bumper movement in it which I found interesting, but the guy sold it before I could get to it....grrrrr.

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Congrats! I like it a lot.