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Vintage LeCoultre Small Seconds
A true classic. 14k yellow gold LeCoultre small seconds. The watchmaker’s watchmaker.
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Patrick
@HorologyHype
Just another hostage of horological brilliance. Creative Director by trade. Collector, photographer, habitual "Watch You-Tuber" and all around gear-head. All my photography 📸
East Lyme, CT
Member since
Last active: 3 hrs ago
Stunning. Yellow gold and vintage dress watches are pretty underrated imo. I'd love to have a JLC watch. I only have one of their 60s Marina clocks.
That’s one sexy watch!
Simply gorgeous.
Damn, this looks like new old stock! Whoever owned this watch before you took excellent care of this.
Okay, can one of the pocket watch nerds or other expert explain how that subdial is made? I had a woman's Elgin with a ground sunk metallic subdial, where they just spotfaced the brushed metal dial to get the different finish. But this is enameled or something. Is this just the same process and then they bake some ceramic atop it?
I forgot who wrote that a gentleman's watch needed only be gold, plain, and slim" or something like that. Molloy? I wish people still understood this.
Stunning. Yellow gold and vintage dress watches are pretty underrated imo. I'd love to have a JLC watch. I only have one of their 60s Marina clocks.
Thank you, and agreed! Anything made my JLC is a true pleasure to own imo 👌🏻
Damn, this looks like new old stock! Whoever owned this watch before you took excellent care of this.
Funny you mention that, it was my grandfathers, he purchased new and I was lucky enough to inherit it. Thank you for noticing and complimenting his care for it 🙌🏻
Okay, can one of the pocket watch nerds or other expert explain how that subdial is made? I had a woman's Elgin with a ground sunk metallic subdial, where they just spotfaced the brushed metal dial to get the different finish. But this is enameled or something. Is this just the same process and then they bake some ceramic atop it?
I forgot who wrote that a gentleman's watch needed only be gold, plain, and slim" or something like that. Molloy? I wish people still understood this.
I'd be guessing there are two ways of going about it, either embossing/pressing the subdial, or sticking a thin brass sheet top layer with a cutaway for the subdial onto a full disk of brass, i.e. a sandwich structure. Bottom line, I can't think of any other way of getting a subdial with a sharp edge around it. The metallic hue of subdials that you'll often see is just due to a finely snailed or oil-pressed pattern of concentric rings. The rest of the magic is done by how the lacquer settles on that pattern. However, that's just me theorizing here.