Hi all, I was at my grandma's house this weekend, and she shared that my grandfather had quite the cufflink collection. Long story short, after opening the box, I found a vintage LeCoultre Memovox in among the cufflinks. The crystal is darn near opaque, so excuse the picture quality. It appears to be 34 or 35mm big and has hands I've never seen on a vintage LeCoultre alarm. They are cathedral hands instead of the dauphine I'm used to seeing. It's a caliber 489 after inspecting it, and I did find original cathedral hands on eBay that seem to match: I really have two questions: 1). Is there a possibility that these are in fact the correct hands? I'm not going to sell this watch, so it's not about value---just being right. Dauphine hands for a 489 are readily available, but I don't want to ever remove originals. 2). This watch needs a crown, a crystal and a full service. Any recommendations on who is good at a a vintage LeCoultre restore? The parts look readily available on eBay, in original packaging, which makes me think someone out there (outside of JLC) has these items.
I can't attach a picture of the hands I found on eBay for some reason. Here is the link: https://www.ebay.com/itm/172232772339Purchases made through these links may earn this site a commission from the eBay Partner Network
Budget is "kind of" secondary. I would like to avoid sending it to JLC and accruing a 3k bill, but if that's what it takes, that'll be done. I've stumbled across Zaf Basha in DC. He looks promising and it looks like it'll be $500-$800 (depending on parts) which would be fabulous. My wife also has a gold JLC master mariner we had serviced 3 years ago by a local Omega authorized guy, but the crown clearly wasn't right and there are issues. He may be able to rectify that? I'm in Richmond VA. I've bought and sold hundreds of watches (recovering flipper), so I have no issues shipping in the US. Im not a fan of international shipping.
Thanks for linking the picture. They are very similar, except they (the ones on the watch) don't have lume plots. The dauphine hands for a 489 are readily available, and only about $60 for NOS. I just don't want to remove authentic, original hands.
These would be the correct hands for your watch: Some watches of this style have radium dots. Those watches have the same hands, except the tips were also dipped in radium: Yes, some had black outer dials as well. I think this is what you are looking for: http://www.ebay.com/itm/NOS-Jaeger-...-Caliber-489-814-815-825-910-911/172587425094Purchases made through these links may earn this site a commission from the eBay Partner Network Not sure of the size. You'll need a watchmaker to measure. gatorcpa
Zaf Basha literally wrote the book on vintage JLC. He will tell you how it should be and I expect he'll have all the parts too.
It's back! It's running incredibly well and the alarm function is amazingly cool. I highly recommend Zaf to anyone!
I've wanted a memovox for a while now. Have not found one that sings to me. Yours came out of restoration so well. It just glows. Congrats and have fun wearing it.
What a beauty. The Memovox (mine is a cal 825) was my first vintage purchase. The alarm is one of the most charming features ever.
Zaf is the best.. I've sent many watches to him for service. +1 recommendation for him, for anyone else looking for a watchmaker to service your pieces on the east coast. Oh and wonderful turn out on that watch, put me in line too that thing is awesome!