1990s JLC Master Control Memovox Reveil Alarm 38.5mm 141.8.97/1
Ref: 141.8.97/1
Specification
Lugs : 20mm
Condition : Pre-Owned
Box & Papers : Box & Booklets
Case Material : Stainless Steel
Warranty : 12-Months NON-Waterproof Warranty
Points of Mention
This watch is sold with its original JLC box and booklets. It comes paired with a 20mm black leather quick-release strap by Fears with a JLC pin buckle. The watch is from Circa. late 1990s and is sold in worn condition, with a few signs of wear, with faint hairline scratches on the crystal, barely visible unless at certain angles, as you can see. The watch comes with our 12-Months NON-Waterproof Warranty.
For more photos see here - https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1E7ymKlewR1QVVjgNI-pn3Ii2NAEnYRj4?usp=drive_link
4K YouTube video, skip to 4:53 - https://youtu.be/1bA13ZVSwjg
The Watch
Here, we have a 1990s JLC Master Control Memovox Reveil Alarm 141.8.97/1. First Introduced in 1950, it was initially called the “Wrist Alarm” but was later changed to “Memovox” for the 1950 Basel watch fair. The name in Latin means “Memor” (Remember) and “Vox” (Memory), a clever play on words. It was a direct competitor of the 1949 Vulcain Cricket Alarm, and it was famously given to Charlie Chaplin in 1953 to celebrate his arrival in Switzerland, with a polished 38.5mm stainless steel round case that gently curves over your wrist thanks to the attractive concave lugs, and a lug-to-lug length of 46.5mm and a case thickness of 13.5mm give the watch an impressive wrist presence. Down the right side, we have the winding crown for the alarm at 2 o’clock, and the time-setting and winding crown sits at 4 o’clock. A stepped smooth bezel holds a domed sapphire crystal above a striking sector-style dial. An outer minute track has lume pips surrounding applied Arabic and dagger indexes marking the hours, at 3 o’clock, a framed date window, and the inner rotating Alarm disc has a useful arrow showing where it is set, elegant Dauphine hands are complemented by a tapered blued second hand. At 12 o’clock, we have the JLC motif and “Reveil” printed underneath, completing this vintage-inspired alarm timepiece. On the reverse, a screwed-down case back with the gold Master Control medallion in the centre, inside an automatic JLC Cal. 9180, 27 jewels, beating at 28,800 beats per hour. It comes paired with a 20mm black leather quick-release strap by Fears with a JLC pin buckle and comes with its original JLC box and booklets.
Personal Note
Complications in watches fascinate me as they all come from a necessity, such as the mechanical alarm. We often take these things for granted today, with the ability to set an alarm instantly, even without touching a single device and instead using your voice, it is a crazy world. But wearing and using this JLC Master Control Memovox Reviel feels like stepping back in time, winding and setting the alarm and eventually feeling and hearing that alarm chime, a beautiful thing indeed. I would not hesitate to add this wonderful watch to your collection today, even if you rarely use the alarm, it will always be a cool party trick!
The Brand
Antoine LeCoultre founded LeCoultre in 1833 in the small village of Le Sentier, Switzerland. By 1866, LeCoultre’s workshop had grown from home-run manufacturers spread across Switzerland to installing modern steam-driven machines to power the tools of all watchmakers, moving them from their homes and bringing them together in one central unit. Now named LeCoultre & Cie, the company became the first manufacturer in the Vallée de Joux Switzerland. Antoine and his son Elie LeCoultre employed more than 500 watchmakers in-house. In 1903, Edmond Jaeger, a watchmaker in Paris who made watches for the French Navy, challenged Swiss manufacturers to produce an ultrathin movement. Jacques-David LeCoultre, Elie’s son, rose to the challenge and created the world’s thinnest pocket watch, which was equipped with the LeCoultre 146 calibre, measuring 1.38mm thick. Over the following years, Jaeger and LeCoultre kept in touch, building a solid friendship, and in 1937, Jaeger-LeCoultre was founded. In 2013, they celebrated their 180th Anniversary. They created iconic timepieces like the Reverso wristwatch and the brilliantly engineered Atmos clock. During the war years, the Mark VII pilot watches of the 1940s were so accurate the Royal Air Force used them as aerial navigation instruments; later, they created the first automatic watch to house a power-reserve indicator in 1948 that the US Army Air Corps used. Jaeger-LeCoultre has developed and revolutionised the watch industry like no other manufacturer. Since 2000, it has been a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Swiss luxury group Richemont. This group includes Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, IWC Schaffhausen, Panerai, Piaget, Vacheron Constantin, Montblanc, Dunhill, and Chloé.