Jaeger-LeCoultre

Dreams rarely happen to realize! Dreams are the wishes we don't expect to see fulfilled. Dreams are essential to our motivation in life as they let us hope!

Sometimes things don't happen in life. They should or they could but they just don't happen. Sometimes as things don't seem to happen you end up seeing their possibility as dreams.

Sometimes you end up defining as dreams things that are not the stuff of real dreams, as if you were giving up, trying to convince yourself that you don't deserve them to happen, you can' t get them to happen. But they are not dreams, they don't have this grandeur.

Still they are great moments in life, as they sometimes happen. So here is what happened to me in late December.

I've said here several times that the Jaeger-LeCoultre Geophysic was my watch grail.

In july last year I was very close to get a Geophysic and missed it. jlc.watchprosite.com

I then sincerely thought that it would remain a dream.

I owe to my friend Nicolas to have given me hope in the fall, letting me hope that my time would come.

In fact my time came in late December, thanks to Nicolas.

A week only before Christmas I had for once a good reason to believe in the existence of Santa Claus, or at least its spirit, what is the most important.

But let's stop writing about me and begin the covering of our subject. The Jaeger-LeCoultre Geophysic is one of those best kept secrets that is less and less secret each year, many watch fans being converted by the faith of the early lovers.

Nicolas, i.e. Amanico, already covered excellently the subject of the Geophysic and I won't try to do it again.

Still I want to remind you what I see as the essential characteristics of the Geophysic to share with you my vision of the watch.

In my opinion the Geophysic is the epitomy of an era of watchmaking by Jaeger-LeCoultre.

Jaeger-LeCoultre has long been a provider of high end calibres for the most prestigious watch makers. At the same time Jaeger-LeCoultre has also produced watches under its own name. The shift from calibres to watches has been slowly progressive and the Great House still provides a few calibres to other companies, although this activity has become really secondary now, especially in terms of image as we tend to forget the calibre maker behind the manufacture watchmaker.

The Geophysic was launched in 1958 to celebrate the 125^th anniversary of the house and the Geophysical year. This double reference has defined the watch.

The main asset of the watch is its calibre. The calibre reference P478B/WSbr is the most evolved (JLC) version of a traditional work horse that has equipped the best Jaeger-LeCoultre watches in the forties and fifties, but also the watches of Vacheron Constantin. It is also the same base that has inspired Philippe Dufour for its Simplicity calibre. It is in fact in my opinion the best wrist calibre incarnation of the Vallee de Joux style of watchmaking.

After 1958 and this calibre version P478B/WSbr the wrist watch calibres development by Jaeger-LeCoultre has been more focused on automatic calibres and there has been no comparable calibre made by Jaeger-LeCoultre so far after it, even if the company has made many very appealing calibres including some of its characteristics, but never all of them.

So what are the characteristics? It is a hand wound central seconds wrist watch calibre with a hacking function, a Breguet end curve spiral, a swan neck regulator, and a traditional bridge design. The closest modern calibre is the Richard Lange calibre, even if differently designed.

The given characteristics are not just the top notch signs of traditional watchmaking at that time, and consequently an homage to the 125years of experience of the company. They are also the necessary ways to celebrate the Geophysical year. Scientists need extreme precision and the chosen definition is aimed at precision.

A precise watch must be regulated, hence the large compensated balance, the swan neck regulator and the Breguet end curve spiral.

A precise watch should set to the second, hence the hacking function.

A precise watch should be readable and the reading should be precise, hence the central seconds (and the pure and clear design of the dial).

You can see above and below the large curved lever that stops the balance and hacks the watch. The hacking lever is activated through the crown. Pull the crown and the balance stops.

You can also see below that the calibre fills the case. There is just the space between the calibre and the case for the soft iron inner case that gives the watch its antimagnetic status.

In fact the watch extends its coherence from the superb calibre to the case. Made for scientists it is built as a safe.

The watch is antimagnetic, to preserve scientists from getting rid of their watch during experiments.

The watch is also waterproof, partly thanks to its screwed back. A Geophysic was offered to the commanders of the US submarines who attained the North Pole in 1958.

Please have a look there: jlc.watchprosite.com

You will see many documents about the career of the Geophysic.

Another aspect that is totally coherent with the definition of the watch is the finish of the parts. The bridges are very nicely angled, the parts are nicely finished but without any superfluous decoration. No Geneva waves on a watch symbolizing the best of the Vallee de Joux! This watch is made for scientists, is a tool and it is not a piece of luxury.

If you wanted a decorated watch calibre you could get a Vacheron Constantin Chronometre Royal but this is not the spirit of the Geophysic. The Jaeger-LeCoultre Geophysic was and still is a top notch tool perfectly designed and marking the end of an era. Soon after it the watch precision was symbolized by quartz watches.

To some extent this watch is in its way a "metre etalon" of the traditional construction of mechanical wrist watches, without any unnecessary additives.

As you can imagine I'm immensely happy to finally own and wear a Geophysic, because it perfectly offers me what I love in horology.

Geophysic, what else?

Cheers

Dje

ps: Thank you Nicolas, you're my Santa Claus this year!