Celebrating 60 years of its alarm watches, Jaeger-LeCoultre introduced its latest addition to the Memovox collection today with a gorgeous new model. Featuring a stunning blue dial, the Master Memovox Boutique Edition (Ref. 141848J) adds even more charm and class to an already timeless collection.
JLC is arguably the first watch company to create an automatic alarm watch and its newest piece is hardly an exception to that heritage. It’s no doubt that JLC put a lot of effort into the details of the Master Memovox.
Taking notes from the Memovox models of the 70’s, it’s impossible not to notice the vintage nods in the piece. The watch measure in at 40mm in diameter, and only 7.4mm in height. It also houses JLC’s Caliber 956, a descendant of the original Memovox movement, inside of Stainless-Steel case. The difference being that this new movement features a handy quick-set date function that the original movement was missing. The inner dial is a striking light blue sunburst-motif style disc that accentuates the dark blue outer dial and give’s homage to JLC’s original “snowdrop” model of the 70’s. These discs are separated by a 15-minute interval minute scale in white, with an alarm pointer. The hour and minute hands, as well as the indices and alarm pointer are pained with glowing green Super-Luminova.
Behind the Reverso, the Memovox collection is arguably Jaeger-LeCoultre’s most recognized timepieces. The collection is known for its alarm. Sounding almost like a cricket, a vibrating hammer rapidly strikes a gong mounted inside the case-back creating that unique sound. Not a whole lot has changed in the 60 years since this alarm was first introduced by JLC. It’s still powered by its own mainspring, and can only be set on a 12 hour cycle.
The watch is fitted with a blue, braided cotton strap with a calfskin inlay. In my opinion, this is the only ding the watch has against it for me. It’s a beautiful case, and I personally feel that the strap dresses it down. I would love to see this piece donning a stainless-steel bracelet to match its class, and the blue strap to dress it down instead of being dressed down right out of the boutique.
Regardless, this is a beautiful watch, and will be available in JLC boutiques by the end of November. It is limited to 500 pieces, and is priced at $11,700 USD.
