Jaeger-LeCoultre

ThomasM
[PuristS]
14331

• Show profile
• Show other posts

The comments in this thread are all interesting and informative, but I have to caution

against those that want to extrapolate anything too broad ranging or conclusive from these comments.

Inspiration went in all directions; and development costs and efforts were often shared.

In fact, in simple fact, yes, JLC has supplied these base movements (and much more!) to these brands listed, and many more. JLC was and is one of the most most important, if not THE most important, movement and ebauche suppliers to the Swiss watch industry, in the medium and high end market sectors.

But again, it is not as simple as many will try to conclude from such comments.

For example, the JLC manual ultra thin was originally developed in the 1940's by JLC for AP and VC and used by them exclusively. Not unusual, as JLC at that time often developed exclusive calibres for other high profile brands, for their exclusive use (even JLC didn't use that exact calibre themselves, under their own brand(s)

BUT...the JLC calibre itself was based on the 9 ligne (?) LE Piguet cal. ML, whose rights at the time were owned by AP (AP having a long and very intimate relationship with the Louis-Elysee Piguet workshops going all the way back to the late 1800's.)

I love these historical trivia threads, and personally find them fascinating. But I also am wary that readers do try to draw conclusions from them that may not be warranted and thus become the start of a whole new set of misinformation and internet perpetuated myths.

Of course, my own information and comments are based upon my own historical research and interest in the area over the past few decades, and of course might be mistaken itself. Lord knows there are plenty of mis representations in this indusry! I stand ready to be corrected, in such cases.

The distinctions between the 889 family and 888 family of movements would be a nice thing to have, officially, from JLC. In most cases, the VC and AP derived calibers used in recent years should be based upon the 889, but of course can be traced in their lineage to the 888.

There were in fact quite a few other movement bases which AP and VC used, especially the early / mid generation automatics preceding the 920/1120/2120, which were JLC based and which are quite interesting from horological perspectives, even if they are not widely known today.


Regards,

TM

Site Info.