Jaeger-LeCoultre. Master Control. Chronograph. Mecaquartz. Wait...what?
This guy took us a little by surprise when we pulled it out of the collection of its original owner. Quite frankly, we had never seen one before, and it took us a bit to figure it out. But in that time we grew so fond of it we're still seriously questioning whether or not we should list it. What we have here is an incredibly hard to find Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Control Chronograph from the late 1990s. This little beauty catches attention everywhere it goes - mostly due to its stunning case design, svelte craftsmanship reminiscent of much more expensive timepiece. Featuring a steel case coupled with a striking black dial and mated to a brown crocodile strap with deployant clasp, this unusual JLC is most certainly not something you'll see every day.
Adding to the unique nature of the timepiece is the JLC Calibre 630 Quartz movement, a high end, 25 Jewel manufacture movement with mechanical chronograph mechanism, known as "Mecaquartz". These unusual movements were primarily supplied to other manufactures (notably IWC), but Jaeger-LeCoultre made and sold a limited number of timepieces with their own name on the dial. What Mecaquartz offers is the precision timekeeping of a quartz movement and the brilliant functionality of a mechanical chronograph, a very cool combination. Furthermore, the small size of the movement allows the entire timepiece to be sized-down from their fully mechanical counterparts, making the piece perfect for dress wear.
As with any high-end timepiece, the beauty of this piece comes from the culmination of fine detailing: Black gloss dial with triple subsidiary registers, polished hour markers with luminescent plots, outer tachymetre scale, red-tipped steel hands, date function with red numerals, barrel pushers, and display back all work together to make this one of the best looking modern LeCoultres we've ever seen. We've looked for others like it and turned up a few in Europe, but none with this stunning steel case/black dial combination, and certainly none at this price!
So come and get it, before we change our minds.
