Jaeger-LeCoultre Memovox Master Control Alarm Ref. 144.8.94, ca. 2002

Identity

Jaeger-LeCoultre Memovox Réveil, Master Control, steel, Ref. 144.8.94, circa 2002. Manual-winding mechanical movement, in-house calibre 914 with twin barrels, 28,800 vibrations per hour, mechanical gong alarm. Steel case, 36 mm in diameter, screwed back struck with the gilt Master Control 1000 Hours medallion and numbered, two signed crowns at 2 and 4 o'clock, water-resistant to 50 metres. Silvered dial, sunburst centre disc and flat outer chapter, applied arrowhead markers, painted black Arabic numerals at 12, 3, 6 and 9 o'clock, luminous dots on the minute track, central alarm hand with a triangular tip, blued dauphine hands. Domed sapphire crystal. Black leather strap, original Jaeger-LeCoultre folding clasp.

Horological context

Founded in 1833 in Le Sentier, in the Vallée de Joux, by Antoine LeCoultre, the manufacture joined forces with the Parisian watchmaker Edmond Jaeger and took the name Jaeger-LeCoultre in 1937. 1951 brought the Memovox — from memoria and vox, the voice of memory — the maison's first alarm wristwatch, manually wound; the automatic followed in 1956 with the 815 calibre, the world's first automatic alarm wristwatch, from which came the Deep Sea Alarm of 1959 and the Polaris of 1965. In 1992 the maison launched the Master Control line and the control that gives it its name: a thousand hours of continuous testing, six weeks, on the finished and cased watch, in six positions, with power-reserve cycles, temperature and pressure variation, magnetic fields and shock. Where chronometer certification runs fifteen days on the movement alone, the thousand hours bear on the watch as it will be worn. The Memovox owes its reputation to the first automatic alarm wristwatch, in 1956; this one returns to hand-winding and to thirty-six millimetres — the quieter of the line's two executions.

Character

Two crowns at 2 and 4 o'clock, and a central hand with a triangular tip that you bring round to the hour you want: the Memovox is set the way an appointment is made. The word REVEIL is written in French below the centre, and the dial divides into two zones, a sunburst centre and a flat outer chapter carrying the minute track. On the back, the gilt medallion of the thousand-hour control is numbered.

Serviced. Very good condition. Delivered with its original box and warranty certificate, together with the Contre-Temps 24-month warranty certificate.