SPECIFICATIONS
Solid 14KT yellow gold case measuring 32mm
Original crown
LeCoultre 436 manual winding movement
ANALYSIS
This magnificent timepiece has many special features. It is an iconic but very rare model of a duo-date with pointer and window for the day of the week placed at 12 o’clock patented and produced by Jaeger LeCoultre in the mid 30s. Its production extended for the next twenty years or so with great success. This particular piece bears on the dial the signature of a well-known New York jeweler, Charlton & Co., who founded his first boutique on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan in 1909 and expanded in the following years.
The dial is typical of this watch, with the peripheral section hosting the red Arabic numerals for the date indication and the window for the day of the week in the center of the dial in a very large dedicated window. The general layout of the dial is made more attractive by the similar “sector type” layout, which is a classic of the 30s and 40s. The hands are in the shape of a wide golden sword.
The case was made of 14-karat yellow gold and the hallmarks on the inner caseback refer to the LeCoultre production, which in the first half of the 40s had eliminated any reference to Jaeger for watches to be exported to the United States. On the left side of this beautiful and untouched gold case there is the “pin” to set the date around 7 o’clock. The vintage advertisements emphasize the setting via the corrector button and the automatic and rapid passage of the date jump.
Inside is the beautiful mechanism that animates this Duo Date: it is a round shaped movement housed in a round case and which originates from the Uniplan 412. This is a date variant called LeCoultre 436.
