Jaeger-LeCoultre

Just fished this one out of the 'Bay -- LeCoultre Memovox Golden Heritage:

Watch was pretty rough when I pulled it out of the box, but it is now looking and running well  (+7 sec/day).

I think it is from about 1960 judging by the style of the printing on the instruction book.

Let's see your Memovoxes!

Take care all,

gatorcpa

Nice catch, but tell us more: What movement, movement number, and the case is plated gold or gold?

Some Memo pictures, as requested!

Vintage, I suppose?

Well, I think that's all...

But I am still on the hunt for a few others...

Best,

Nicolas

...the case is 10K gold-filled.  The case back is on very tight, I can't get it loose.  Speific information on this watch will need to wait until it is serviced.  Based on other identical watches I've seen, the caliber should be K814. 

Not my watch, but an identical one.  I believe it belongs to Clavi's great collection.

According to information posted by Clavi on another (French language) forum, this watch was made to celebrate the 130th anniversary of JLC in 1963.  It was sold with the large red V&C/LeCoultre jewelry box.   I acquired such a box some years ago and it came with the Golden Heritage instruction booklet seen in the top post. 

So this time I put the cart before the horse, or, the box before the watch.

Take care,

gatorcpa

The truth is that we don't know very well the US Production of Lecoultre watches, due, maong any other explanation, to the fact that The Grande Maison is that Grande that they lost the US Archives.

Which made :laugh is that, sometimes, getting the box before the watch is a good excuse to hunt the watch...

All the  best,

Nicolas

...watches do exist in Le Sentier, at least for movement serial numbers.  I used to be able to get production dates by email through JLC-New York, once upon a time. 

The charge for that service today is almost as much as I paid for this watch.  So I don't ask for it anymore.

The US importer that mated the LeCoultre movements with cases and dials (Longines-Wittnauer Company, Inc.) is the entity that is now deceased.  Not sure if they ever kept any records matching the serial and case numbers.

Take care,

gatorcpa

I saw your post earlier today, and thought that I would post these pictures...which I couldn't find instantly, hence my come-back to the post tonight.

You did the job of finding them for me, so many thanks !

One very interesting thing to note on that watch is it had a separate resonating inner back 'a la Polaris' but the watch itself is earlier than the Polaris.

It would be interesting to know who came up with this great idea  (someone at Wadsworth, the casing company, or someone from Longines-Wittnauer-VacheronConstantin-LeCoultre the US entity, or someone from le Sentier - though I rather doubt this is the latter).

I don't know wether they did some sort of reverse cross-atlantic collaboration on that one wherby the US arm would have innovated on something to be later copied in Switzerland   (but anyway, the case of the polaris was itself a copy of the Vulcain Nautical launched 4 years before the Polaris)

I am normally not a big fan of US LeCoultre memovoxes (which are generally of lesser quality vs the European ones), but the inner case makes this US memovox a very special one indeed 

(I have a massive marketing material that was released with the watch at the time, but just can't find it either so will have to come back on the topic later)

"It would be interesting to know who came up with this great idea  (someone at Wadsworth, the casing company, or someone from Longines-Wittnauer-VacheronConstantin-LeCoultre the US entity, or someone from le Sentier - though I rather doubt this is the latter)."

Actually, my  Memovox case has an S&W (Schwab & Wuischpard) maker's mark on the back.  Not sure if all were the same.  If so, then I would guess it was their idea, otherwise someone had the thinking caps on at Longines-Wittnauer.

Interesting to note that S&W was also the US case maker for the Hamilton Otis. This was the Reverso look-alike.  S&W and Hamilton were supposedly sued by JLC back in the 1940's regarding patent issues, although I've never seen any evidence of that lawsuit or settlement.

Thanks for the additional information,

gatorcpa