Hs111 recounts his years-long quest to acquire a Jaeger-LeCoultre E159, a vintage piece he first encountered through his wife's acquisition. This post celebrates the satisfaction of a patient search, highlighting the watch's understated charm and the supportive role of the collector community in discovering rare vintage JLC references.
It indeed has been taking me a pretty while.. The little story of searching for a certain Vintage JLC..
Friends, some of you might remember one or two posts some time ago.
About finding by coincidence in Amsterdam two Vintages, one really nice JLC E159 for my wife
and for myself a little Omega two-tone Automatic from ~1943
Just find two shots from these finds, some 3,5 years ago..
Our first E159 some years ago. A find for a lady
For me just a little bumper Automatic from 40ies
Ever since that time, I have been drawn towards this JLC E159,
because of its charm, relaxed sobriety and appeal.
But my dear wife hadn't let this one go, so I had been chasing one
of these balanced classics, or their cousin, the 109 ( same dial and case,
but instead of a central second, a subsecond @6.).
Our dear Blomman had posted a very nice Duo shot of E159 & 109,
quite some time ago, and so did Nico with his & a friend's perfect 159- SHOMs,
which has even been more elusive to me.
)
Left: the cousin E109; Right: E159 SHOM ( credit: Blomman)
)
Here 2 special E 159s- the SHOM ( credit: Nico)
So when a kind fellow purist, knowing of my search, had tipped me off, that
a E 159 might be popping up, I truly was excitedly eager to see it.
Luckily, all that materialized, and I was fortunate to pull the trigger
on this one.
She's not famous, not flashy, neither blingy nor sophisticated, but I love
her sober, but fine appeal, in a quiet way elegant and timeless, as well:
A great case, size of 32 mm, and on mine with a deep black dial with beautifully
patinated (Radium) numbers; the only thing is that the otherwise excellent appeal
has the pecularity of " empty" sword hands;
These look original, likely, but the lume substance,
probably Radium, between the hands "framing" is gone;
either by crumbling away or/ and having been removed, due to another reason,
or - least likely - always have been without lume and were empty to begin with (?)..
Thus, I am more than happy to share some initial shots of my most recent
arrival, the first one in 2015, my new lucky Vintage catch , the JLC E 159:
Here the new find: black dialled E 159
Very nice deep black dial and a quiet appeal
Wears really comfy.. In no way she's too small
Two 159s sending kind greetings
A white and a black lady
Hope you liked the little excursion into this window of some JLC Vintages .
I do like them.. A lot..
Wishing you all a great WE,
Best, hs
