Posted by Last week I reported about the LeCoultre Sultan and Sultana – A “His & Hers” model from the late 1940’s and beginning of 1950’s.
A model which I believe were made exclusively for the U.S. market.
This time I like to report about another of these “flair and glamour” models…
The LeCoultre Baron – all photos of the watch credit: @ttothmilan
The Aristocrat and the Baroness – “The deftness of the couturier’s touch joins the skill of the watchmaker to create these delightful timepieces“.
In my Sultan report I already mentioned about the time era – the Aristocrat and the Baroness belongs to the same era.
Another watch model which were offered to both genders with a design less traditional than most of the LeCoultre watches we are used to see.
The asymmetric dial makes it easy to mistake the Baron as a rectangular similar to the Sultan – but looking at the case back it is easy to see that the Baron is a square watch.
Gold filled case – made in the U.S. by D&A: DiVincenzo & Arienti Watch Case manufacturer.
Jaeger-LeCoultre / LeCoultre and many other Swiss watch manufactures shipped movements and completed the watch in the U.S. to avoid higher taxes.
DiVincenzo & Arienti Watch Case manufacturer made cases for Longines, Omega, Eglin, Rolex among others.
That LeCoultre used the same case maker as Longines may no be very surprising considering their close relationship.
LeCoultre used several different case makers in the U.S. – most brands did. Guess that is one reason why some case models are very similar to each other or even same.
Another interesting information relieved by the case back is that here we have a round movement, it would have been easy to think that the same, shaped movement as for the Sultan would be used, but no – the square case allows a larger round movement.
Inside is the manual movement Calibre 480/CW – same base movement used in the Jaeger-LeCoultre Jubilé collection watch – reference 2233.
The Calibre 480 was in production between 1948 to 1967.
The Calibre 480/CW is 23.7 mm in diameter, which would make the Baron approximately 27-28 mm wide.
I find the asymmetric dial very elegant, an illusion made in a easy way. While the outer shape of the dial is “skewed“, the logo text and index are not.
Gives a “drivers watch” look.
On the wrist – very elegant, very cool!
I can imagine seeing the Baron on the wrist of the chairman of the board at one of the big 1950’s companies in New York…
A big thank you to @ttothmilan for sharing his watch and letting me discover this model!
Stay tuned for more hidden gems of Jaeger-LeCoultre and the U.S. market!
The Blomman Watch Report 