on my recent travels, my friend took me to a vintage watch shop in singapore. tucked away in a quiet little corner of town, that shop really is a treasure trove. rows upon rows of vintage watches, the first watch that caught my eye was the above lecoultre "futurematic".
we spent an hour in the shop last thursday, then went home to do some research. friday i went back, decided that's the piece for me. first manufactured in 1953, it is widely reported that this is one of the very first automatic watches to be produced universally. boldly named "futurematic", because they believed that watches were going to be made this way from then on. apparently the project was loss making as the watch was overly complicated to make at that time. jaeger lecoultre only produced this watch for 5 years. despite jaeger and lecoultre coming together to form jaeger lecoultre in 1937, my watch was still branded "lecoultre" as they were manufacturing it for the US market.
so this watch was made for the US market, somehow found it's way to the vintage shop in singapore, and it's now half way round the globe with me in london.
we spent an hour in the shop last thursday, then went home to do some research. friday i went back, decided that's the piece for me. first manufactured in 1953, it is widely reported that this is one of the very first automatic watches to be produced universally. boldly named "futurematic", because they believed that watches were going to be made this way from then on. apparently the project was loss making as the watch was overly complicated to make at that time. jaeger lecoultre only produced this watch for 5 years. despite jaeger and lecoultre coming together to form jaeger lecoultre in 1937, my watch was still branded "lecoultre" as they were manufacturing it for the US market.
so this watch was made for the US market, somehow found it's way to the vintage shop in singapore, and it's now half way round the globe with me in london.
a little birthday treat for myself, or any excuse/reason for it. it's a little blemished, a little scratched, a little dirty but i wouldn't want it any other way.
and the wonders of the internet: someone scanned a copy of the repair manual and put it online. not that i know how to repair the watch, but i am loving the scan and typography. and little did i know that vacheron constantin, jaeger lecoultre and longines were all interlinked in those days.
i l00o00ve my "new" old watch.
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