Jaeger-LeCoultre

My first new watch of the year, and it’s a JLC!

 

Ok, so it isn't all that new, just new to me. 

Last year, thanks in part to posts by the evil Vlad, yet another JLC watch caught my eye: the Master Mariner Deep Sea. As I already owned a TT Polaris 1968 and was considering buying a Deep Sea Alarm I found I had to add the Master Mariner to my list as well. I actually bid on one at an auction in November but my absentee bid wasn’t enough to make that particular example mine. So I ended up buying a Deep Sea Alarm, European version, from the Beverly Hills Boutique. One watch was missed, but another was crossed off the list.

 As it turns out it looks like the watch gods wanted me to have a Master Mariner as well. On Christmas Eve I was browsing watch sites and noticed a new posting listing a Master Mariner Deep Sea for sale. The watch in question has a couple minor problems, namely a broken crystal and one of the crowns isn’t correct. The seler mentioned that he had already sourced the correct crown and was awaiting it’s arival so one of the problems was already solved. I figured that sourcing a replacement crystal shouldn’t prove too difficult either so I decided to go for it. This past Thursday I became the happy owner of a “diamond in the rough”.

Here are a couple pictures of it as I received it:

Here you can see the damage to the crystal. Due to its’ location I can live with the current crystal until I find a replacement as it doesn’t really obscure the dial.

In the next photo you can see that the crown on the left is wrong. As I stated, the seller has already located a correct replacement and he will forward it to me as soon as it arrives.

The movement looks to be in good shape. It could use a cleaning and service, but as it is it runs and keeps time quite accurately.

If I am reading the code in the case back correctly it looks like my Master Mariner was made in 1967 (one year after I was made).

An added bonus was that this particular example has a correct period signed bracelet. Vintage JLC bracelets can be hard to track down separately.

So now I’m faced with a choice. Do I have the crystal replaced and the movement serviced by a local watchmaker or do I send it off to JLC for the full spa treatment. Since the movement runs and keeps good time I suspect that it doesn’t need any parts replaced and that a simple cleaning and oiling will ensure its’ health for years to come, which is something my local watchmaker is quite capable of handling.

The case is a different story. If I have it serviced by my local guy I will request that he not polish the case for fear that he wouldn’t be able to fully duplicate the proper finish that JLC originally gave the watch. Since my preference is to minimize the number of times a watch is polished, if there is a chance it will not be done 100% correctly then I would rather it not be done.

I suppose I’ll just spend a little time enjoying it before I make up my mind.

In closing here are a couple photos of my little JLC Dive watch family: one vintage, and two modern tributes. Perhaps someday I’ll own a vintage Polaris and a vintage Deep Sea Alarm. Perhaps someday JLC will issue a tribute to the Master Mariner Deep Sea. Perhaps "modernized" by making it a couple millimeters larger. If they do I'll be one of the first in line to buy one!