Post #38 Perpetual Calendar check 3

Both are great watches, love the master control and moonphase. How much would it be to service and regulate the ultra slim?

Sorry for my ignorance, but did these watches know this was a leap year (ie, on Feb 29)?

Amazing pieces!!!

My recent O/H and repair of the Grand Reveile was about US$2,500, including air freight to and from Geneva. This was because the perpetual calendar mechanism had to be repaired. The Ultra Thin might be stay in Japan and less expensive since it doesn’t seem to have problems with the calendar mechanism. Maybe under US$1,000. Fingers crossed😉

Do you keep these on winders?

Yes. My grandson (now 9 years old) or his son will have to take it to a “local Jaeger leCoultre agency” before the 1st of March 2,100 CE for “mechanical adjustment”.

I wear them about 10 days a year each, so they are on winders most of the time.

I love these ultra complicated watches (JLCs and IWCs). But, I have always feared of either 1) oversetting the dates OR 2) having the leap years mess up my calibrations (which I would be nervous while setting time/date due to reason #1).

Yes, I share the same fears. I will only wear them for trips abroad when the time differences are 1 hour, where the exercise of hacking the watch for 1 hour is an easy task. Trips to multiple destinations in different time zones becomes a nightmare. Anyways, my very personal opinion is that the admiring and appreciating the craftsmanship to manufacture such time pieces is the main point of owning them. 😉

Hell of a pair of #jaegerlecoultre watches you got there partner. Wear them well!

Thanks. I’m a great fan of the JLC brand. Check out my Post #29.

https://www.watchcrunch.com/ichibra/posts/post-29-my-jaeger-lecoultres-42188?ref=ichibra

I am totally confused. Are there not only 30 days in April?

Oh, you first made me think I was mistaking Tuesday for Wednesday. We are now in the so called “Golden Week” holidays in Japan. One tends to lose track of days and dates during holiday time, you know😆.

A usual watch with a conventional date (or day/date) mechanism would simply show the date as 31, for any month. You’ll have to adjust the date by yourself. A perpetual calendar watch will “mechanically skip” the leap days, and show the correct month and hence correctly change the year display on the 1st of January.

Hope this will help.

I can't see any 31 of April in my calendar.

A watch with date displays has a ring with 1 to 31 printed on them. The ring rotates a bit each day to show the date on the dial window. A conventional watch would keep on rotating whether it’s a day after February 28 or April 30, mechanical or not. If any of my comments sounded as if I was making a point that April had 31 days, it must be my poor English.

I can't be sure if this is true but I was told to not use winders for watches that are not often worn as the wear and tear builds up as the watch runs.

I think there are pros/cons. What you have been told is probably correct. On the other hand hydrogenation of the lubricants due to lack of motion of the movement might lead to wear and tear. But for both cases, I think the “jewels” and a periodic O/H would help delay the wear and tear process. So for my other automatic watches, I have them on and off the winder. I only have 12 winders for a 108 pieces plus alpha collection, so their stays are far shorter. It’s only these two JLC perpetual calendars that stay on the winder most of the time. If I don’t keep them up to date, but to wear them from time to time, the adjustment will be a complicated and time consuming affair (has to be done from around 04:00 to 20:00). And, if I don’t make adjustments properly, there is a high risk of a serious breakdown. It’s kind of a dilemma. Maybe I should give up the idea of “being able to wear my perpetual calendar watches on a whim without the fuss of adjustment”. I don’t really know. But one thing I am sure about is that I won’t be able to wear watches on a schedule. 😅