Posted by During the 1930’s and 1940’s Jaeger-LeCoultre made a lot of Art Deco inspired rectangular watches. The most well-known being the Reverso which since it’s birth in 1931 been one of the brand icons!
But Jaeger-LeCoultre did not only make the Reverso or men’s rectangular watches. There were a whole line of different models for both men and women.
You may have heard about the Duoplan, a movement made in T.W.O levels, which made the area of the movement smaller, enabling the possibility to make smaller watches. The most famous of these is the Calibre 101, the worlds smallest movement when it was released, not sure if it still is…
But there were also a “simpler”, more traditional watches with one level movements, the Uniplan.
Many different models existed, some very similar to the Reverso in style, but without the Reverso case function. Others with different types of lugs made for lace straps rather than traditional watch straps.
Here are more examples, London retailer TYME Ltd, ad from 1937. For GBP 5.1010 you will always have the time precisely!
These models were also popular in the 1940’s – here shown in the 1945 Jaeger-LeCoultre catalogue. Notice the dial of the reference 563, the dial is very similar to the Reverso One we looked at last week!
They were popular all the way to the 1950’s, were the Art Deco fashion faded out…
Not only were these ladies Uniplan “petit”… Often around 23 mm long not including the lugs and 14 to 16 mm wide… Similar size due to most of them had the same movement inside, the Calibre 404 or Calibre 407.
Boxes were small as well! 54 mm long, 27 mm wide and 47 mm high. Compare to what we see today, that is micro!
This type of box were also used for the Reverso, just a bit larger.
Inside is enough for the watch, nothing more…
Here are three examples of the ladies Uniplan. Based on the case number, the black dial on the right is from the early 1930’s while the other T.W.O are from the 1940’s.
Small and elegant, including the lace straps – will these come in fashion again one day…?
If you like Uniplan, here is a link for you: LeCoultre Uniplan
Stay tuned for more Jaeger-LeCoultre history!
