Jaeger-LeCoultre Memovox World Time 125th Anniversary Limited Edition Alarm Wristwatch, 1958

Offered for your consideration is this exceptionally beautiful and exceedingly rare Jaeger-LeCoultre Memovox International World Time Alarm Wristwatch, produced in 1958 to celebrate the company’s 125th anniversary.

Its extraordinary black dial combines the practical Memovox alarm with an International World Time display, complemented by gold hands, applied numerals and hour markers. The dramatic contrast is perfectly framed by the beautifully polished stainless-steel case and completed by the two signed Jaeger-LeCoultre winding crowns.

It is an elegant and unusually sophisticated watch whose appearance remains remarkably contemporary more than sixty-five years after it was made.

Jaeger-LeCoultre introduced the Memovox Alarm Wristwatch in 1950. Its name combines the Latin words memoria and vox—literally, “voice of memory.”

The first watches were manually wound and equipped with Jaeger-LeCoultre calibre 489. Although successful, development continued rapidly. A short production run of fewer than 2,000 calibre 601 movements was followed in 1953 by the improved calibre 814, engineered for greater reliability and easier servicing.

The Memovox quickly became, alongside the celebrated Reverso, one of Jaeger-LeCoultre’s defining watches and an important achievement in twentieth-century mechanical watchmaking.

So significant was the model to the company that in 1958 Jaeger-LeCoultre chose the Memovox as a symbolic culmination of its first 125 years, producing a limited number of International World Time versions to commemorate the anniversary.

Inside the watch is the celebrated manually wound Jaeger-LeCoultre calibre 814, fully signed LeCoultre Co.

The movement incorporates the mechanical alarm mechanism that gave the Memovox its name. One crown controls normal winding and time-setting functions, while the second operates the alarm system and its central alarm-setting disc.

The Memovox’s mechanical alarm remains one of its most engaging features: set from and powered by the watch itself, it provides an audible reminder while allowing the wearer to experience one of Jaeger-LeCoultre’s most ingenious vintage mechanical complications in everyday use.

The International World Time version adds another dimension to the concept through its ability to discover the current time in most leading cities around the world, combining practical functionality with one of the most visually distinctive Memovox designs of the period.

This watch also illustrates a fascinating chapter in Jaeger-LeCoultre’s history in the North American market.

For many decades, the company’s watches sold in the United States and Canada were branded simply LeCoultre. In the United States, complete Swiss watches were subject to substantial import duties, so Swiss movements were imported separately and fitted into locally manufactured cases.

The present watch is a particularly interesting example, its case being expressly signed:

“Cased and timed in the USA by LeCoultre” The movement itself is fully signed LeCoultre Co., while both winding crowns bear the Jaeger-LeCoultre trademark.

This exceptionally rare 1958 Memovox International remains in excellent vintage condition.

The striking original black World Time dial is beautifully preserved, with its gold hands, numerals, markers and world-city indications remaining crisp and highly attractive.

The stainless-steel case retains its elegant proportions and polished finish, while the two winding crowns remain correctly signed Jaeger-LeCoultre.

The watch has been fully serviced by a Master Swiss watchmaker and is functioning properly, including its mechanical alarm mechanism.

It retains its original gold-plated Jaeger-LeCoultre buckle, distinguished by the raised JLC trademark across the buckle bridge.

Jaeger-LeCoultre traces its origins to 1833, when Antoine LeCoultre established a small watchmaking workshop in Le Sentier in Switzerland’s Vallée de Joux.

During the following two decades, LeCoultre developed a succession of important watchmaking inventions and manufacturing techniques. In recognition of his achievements in precision and mechanization, he was awarded a gold medal at the first Universal Exhibition in London in 1851.

In 1866, at a time when Swiss watchmaking remained largely decentralized among hundreds of small home and farm workshops, Antoine and his son Elie LeCoultre established the Vallée de Joux’s first fully integrated watch manufacture.

By bringing numerous specialized crafts together under one roof, LeCoultre & Cie. was able to develop increasingly sophisticated and partially mechanized production methods for complicated watch movements.

The Manufacture eventually became known as the “Grande Maison de la Vallée de Joux.” By the turn of the twentieth century it had created hundreds of different calibres, including numerous chronographs and repeater movements. Beginning in 1902, LeCoultre also became an important supplier of movement blanks to Patek Philippe.

A further decisive chapter began in 1903, when Paris-based watchmaker Edmond Jaeger challenged Swiss manufacturers to produce the ultra-thin movements he had developed.

Jacques-David LeCoultre, Antoine’s grandson, accepted the challenge. Their collaboration resulted in an extraordinary series of ultra-thin watches and eventually led to the formal creation of the Jaeger-LeCoultre name in 1937.

The company continued to distinguish itself through technically inventive and visually original watches, among them the Reverso and, beginning in 1950, the Memovox alarm wristwatch.

Since 2000, Jaeger-LeCoultre has formed part of the Richemont luxury group alongside such distinguished maisons as Cartier, Vacheron Constantin, IWC, Montblanc and Van Cleef & Arpels.

Created in 1958 to commemorate Jaeger-LeCoultre’s 125th anniversary, the present Memovox International brings together several of the qualities for which the Grande Maison became celebrated: mechanical ingenuity, practical complication, distinctive design and exceptional watchmaking craftsmanship. Its rare World Time dial and fascinating North American LeCoultre configuration make it a particularly desirable surviving example of one of the company’s most important historic models.