Posted by Another watch I had the chance to see from the Jaeger-LeCoultre Heritage Galley – the reference E 502 Futurematic Porthole.
In my previous report about the Futurematic I wrote about the official launch in the European market, 1953. For a few years it was one of the poster boys of Jaeger-LeCoultre together with the Powerwind and the Memovox…
Only to vanish from any documents I have seen from 1958 and on wards…
The Futurematic had several different dial and case versions, but can be divided into T.W.O distinct types – normal sub-dials and portholes sub-dials.
Here is a link to the normal sub-dials version I wrote earlier: Jaeger-LeCoultre Automatic SR-497: E 501 Futurematic.
The second type with “portholes” appears in documents from 1956 and 1957. At the same time as Jaeger-LeCoultre starts to use a special Futurematic logo here in Europe:
This new logo is not exclusive for the Porthole version, here is a photo ad showing the logo on the normal sub-dials version, but to be honest, I can’t recall ever seen this logo on the dial of any Futurematic with normal sub-dials:
The Futurematic logo is more common to see in combination with the Porthole sub-dials, like in this ad from 1957:
And like always, there are no hard rule, here is another ad from 1957 with the logo in the ad but not on the dial:
I really like this logo, so futuristic for its time!
What I like even more is this Jaeger-LeCoultre reference E 502 Futurematic Porthole which I saw in the Heritage Gallery!
Clean sharp lines, Porthole sub-dials and the Futurematic logo – elegance with and edge!
The plexi have started to crack from age, luckily it’s not far to the nearest watchmaker!
A BIG thank you to Jaeger-LeCoultre and the Heritage Gallery for letting me see this late version of the Futurematic!
Stay tuned for more…
The Blomman Watch Report 