SOLD
40’s Jaeger Universal Geneve Cal 281 Vintage watch
Description:
This truly is an historic watch that if it could talk, could probably write a novel. This particular example from Jaeger LeCoultre is unique as is houses a Universal Geneve Cal 281 manual wind chronograph movement which based on the extremely scare Valjoux cal 69. The watch with is housed in a stainless steel case with Van Cleef & Arpels style lugs giving the watch a unique presence. At some point in its lifetime, someone fitted a domed mineral glass to the watch. We didnt remove it as its actually quite nice and doesn’t take away from the watch. The watch was presented to a T A Bourne who belonged to the Conservative Club in London. Although at first glance you may think the dial is damaged, it is just heavily patina-ed with the text and numbers being preserved under the lacquer. This crazy cool piece is stunning with all its original blued hands and unique dial would be perfectly suited for a vintage watch collector.
A bit of trivia
The Conservative Club was a London gentlemen’s club, now dissolved, which was established in 1840. In 1950 it merged with the Bath Club, and was disbanded in 1981. From 1845 until 1959, the club occupied a building at 74 St James’s Street.
As the name implies, the club was politically aligned to the Conservatives, but it was very much formed at the outset for dissident Tories out of favour with the Carlton Club, and its membership contained numerous rebellious MPs and activists during its history.
Dial:
The dial has heavily aged to gain almost a rainbox of different colours. The hour markers are painted Arabic numerals with two Radium dots below 12 o’clock. All the hands are blued. There is a tachymeter scale around the circumference of the dial and another scale around the inner circumference. The seconds are a sub dial at 9 o’clock and the minutes for the chronograph a subdial at 3 o’clock.
Details:
Diameter: 32mm
Thickness: 11mm
Case Material: Stainless Steel
Strap Material: Leather
Out of stock
