So I got my first twins! The JLC on the right was inherited from my grandmother. It was her brothers, he was an RAF navigator in WWII and KIA.
The one on the left just arrived from a rag and bone mans ebay shop in France....got it silly cheap!
Question is this- JLC were never overly bothered about standard cases and used all sorts of suppliers as long as it was high quality steel. Very clear difference here in case design too....should I (can I) get it fixed or start looking for a generic period case in the same high quality (aviation) steel? Any ideas which omega cases would be good donors ...cases measure 32/33 without crown. Thanks for all and any suggestions

 

I have heard good things about this guy, but I cannot speak from firsthand experience. I plan to send him a watch with a missing lug soon to repair:

https://www.watchcaserepair.com/

 

Hey Thanks!! Any ballpark idea of price?

 

Curious - what makes you state the above two items?

 

I got into collecting JLC's after I inherited the first one and this seems to be a repeating theme both in forums and in info about them. ..they did insist of using aircraft grade steel, but got case suppliers from all over the place. Also I think the attitude partially stems from their export connection with the USA way back when. They avoided certain import duties by shipping over just the movements allowing them to be cased on site in the US...There seems to be a marked difference in quality. If you look at the material, the poor plating, and particularly the casebook edges of some of the lecoultre (as opposed to Jaeger Lecoultre) you see a lot more raggedy edges and wee gaps/irregularities in the back to case fitting. These are general personal observations I hasten to add, and probably the reason I'm not into watches branded soully "Lecoultre" except for the Futurematic, that is one beautiful, weird, and massively over engineered watch!!! JLC apparently lost money on every one they produced!!...I'd dearly love one and still put in a speculative bid on fleabay now and again, but I'm not sure about the high overheads in keeping one alive...the origina wear " Sunday only to church" type watch....there's a great repair article from "the watch guy" about them. Including a warning to prospective collector/owners right at the end....

 

Could you explain to me what "aviation steel" is and how come you say it's used in watches from Jaeger LeCoultre? I have never heard anything like that before.

 

Of course now I go looking for the stuff I can't find it! This I believe, refers to the dearth of quality raw materials in the war and immediate post war years. There was a certain grade of steel used in the aviation industry that was of a better quality and JLC insisted on whoever supplied cases had to use a similar grade.........Whether this is folklore, myth, or has some basis, remains to be seen. But I have seen this expression bandied about on a number of occasions in JLC forums and in vintage JLC sellers websites....If this is wrong and I am perpetuating an urban myth I do apologise...at least it's not about an Omega! lol

 

I posted a link to this post on a military watch forum I'm on in regards to the case material. Sure someone might know enough to chime in, but I also never heard about aviation steel

DON

 

here's something I found from an old eBay listing Item:

item number: 281463362791

CASE : The eye catching solid steel case with exquisite round shape has an undisputable elegance and is in very nice condition throughout with almost no signs of wear. The case measures 34mm wide with crown, and 37.60mm including the lugs.The whole case has been carefully crafted from 316L grade stainless steel, a particularly high grade that offers very high corrosion resistance and protection against marine and hostile industrial atmospheres. 316L is used in the aviation industry where is has traditionally found favour as a basis for propeller shafts.

 

Have you posted anything on Zaf's vintage JLC forum:

http://www.classicwatch.com/phpbb3/viewforum.php?f=3

He really is very helpful. As for vintage JLC and aviation steel, I have no idea. The only watches that I've observed from the 30s and 40s are the WWWs and GSTPs. All of these have base-metal cases with, typically, pretty woeful chrome-plating. Of course these could have been following a military technical or price spec (although perhaps not technical in the case of the WWWs as other makers have solid stainless construction). I can't find the Ebay item you refer to but it's not exactly a verifiable original source.

 

Personally if you can justify the cost I'd vote lug repair. That case is really nice.

 

I have first hand experience. Communication is minimal (about as minimal as you can get), prices are reasonable, the actual work has been good so far. If you don't want the case polished, then say so up front. The first one I sent came back polished, even though I never asked for it and doing so was never discussed. Did a decent job on that, but still not something I ever do unless I've had a conversation with the watch owner before hand...

Cheers, Al

 

no it isn't! If you want to read the whole listing try googling under JLC cal p478. It's an old listing. I'll check out the forum..

 

I'm not sure where you are but if you're looking for a case guy in the UK then there is Adam Philips. I don't think he'll be cheap.

https://www.watchcaseworks.co.uk/

I found the Ebay listing and counted 6 uses of the word rare; my BS meter is flickering quite a bit .

 

Not sure an Ebay seller is the most objective source when they're describing their own watches. Of course some are very honest individuals but like others I never heard the words "aviation" steel. (And I'm inro aviation watches).

 

i think the term "aviation steel" was a term later adopted by random folks who wanted to communicate that this is industrial grade steel. what we are really talking about is the specific steel alloy. 316L steel is actually "marine grade steel." It contains various elements that make it likely to corrode in salt water.

 

That would make more sense..

 

Yes - sweat is pretty salty

 

If it's 316L, it would not usually be used in aircraft structures as it's low strength.

More or less, for aircraft, you're looking for high strength as all steels have a similar density and weight is the biggest problem in aircraft design, usually but not always.

Thereare aluminium alloys with a similar (bit lower) strength to 316L and they have a density of only a third of steel so are much more efficient.

Cheers, Chris

 

Really...you learn something new every day.

What are you some kind of aviation engineer or something?