Saturday, April 09, 2005

Jaeger LeCoultre Launch The Master Calendar

First reported here the Master Calendar has been a long time coming and looks great at first glance following the styling cues of the recent Master 8 days, and Hometime.


At last we also get much better looking black lettering for the day and month rather than hideous but 'traditional' red. JLC also adds a useful if rather over emphasised power reserve feature so sadly lacking on the outgoing model. Personally, I am very sad to see the demise of the dauphine hands (compare them on the beautiful Réserve de Marche model). Frustratingly missing any sort of tick mark for minutes to help accurately set the time just like the old one, it still looks good, but is now up to a fashionable 40mm in diameter which will attract as many people as put others off.

Whilst the new Patek Philippe 5146 Annual Calendar heads towards JLC styling, ironically the JLC Master Calendar nods towards traditional Patek Philippe Perpetuals. It's a shame that JLC didn't follow through the adopted style with introducing at least an annual calendar mechanism like Patek's shown below to save the owner the bind of changing the end of 30 day months but for an annual adjustment in February:

Picture from "Watch day display mechanism" Swiss Patent CH685585

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Velociphile,

I share your feeling. It is a sexy but not-for-me watch. The far apart day and month apertures, like GO Perpectual and Zenith, is not my taste. And the power reserve indication is exagerated. I also miss the dauphine hands and smaller 38mm Case (actually this size is big for a dress watch). Why do JLC (and Omega) use alpha hands where a pair of dauphine hands is more appropriate?

Regards,

Coronet

Anonymous said...

I agree with Coronet, Velociphile. Seems JLC could have done better with less on emphasizing the RDM. I think the red day/month aperatures flow nicely with the half-moon indicator on the outgoing model.

We will see how accepted the 40mm size is, but it is in vogue. Wonder when the pendulum will swing back to sub-40mm?

Velociphile said...

I've been lucky enough to handle and wear the (PG) version. It doesn't do anything for me in the flesh. The small seconds get lost in the moon and the reserve indicator is too prevalent. I also don't like the hands.

It's also quite a thick watch (moreso than the outgoing Master Moon) and feels 2x as thick as an RDM!

As I said I prefer the new PP Annual!

Anonymous said...

Wear Watchoholic friends,

I must say that I do not agree with you at all, and I totally love this watch. I am now a very proud owner of the PG version, and I keep looking at it for any fault at all, not succeeding. And the degree of complexity with the design, style and quality in relation to prize is amazing. The price off-licence should be around USD10k, which is very reasonable. The only weak detail is the clasp, which is the new JLC double clasp, and a little bit more complicated than necessary to close.

Reconsider guys. Ask a friend to borrow one for a day, and simply fall in love.

Kind regards
Jan from Sweden