I now have a couple of LeCoultre Powermatics. This second one was acquired recently and came as a surprise as there were few bidders for the very popular model. I assume this was because the seller misspelled LeCoultre and that led to many not finding this watch when searching for it. 'Powermatic' was not mentioned in the label as well, adding to its relative obscurity on eBay. Lucky for us who found it and even luckier for me to have acquired the watch at about a fourth of what its currently worth.
There is an interesting story about LeCoultre and Jaeger-LeCoultre that you may read about here. LeCoultre was basically behind the movement (what some will call the heart and soul of a watch) while Jaeger was a jeweler. There's also a clarification there about why most of their vintage watches bear only the LeCoultre brand while nowadays its always Jaeger-LeCoultre.
 |
This automatic watch features a power reserve indicator at the top of the dial that gave it the Powermatic name.
|
 |
Side view showing the crown and the thick, solid lugs of the watch.
|
 |
The other side view showing the overall good condition of the watch
|
 |
Unlike my other Powermatic, this watch does not have an engraving at the back.
|
 |
Close-up of the pristine dial. The power reserve indicator shows at least 30h remaining.
|
 |
The watch has a Cal. 481 bumper automatic movement inside. This runs at 18,000 A/h with a power reserve of 40 hours. The caliber was introduced in 1948.
|
 |
The watch was cased in the USA and bears the serial number engraved on the inside of the back cover. There is no L&K here but there is a stylized A under 10K Gold Filled. I assume now that the 'L&K' and the 'A' stand for jewelers that issued the watches.
|
 |
Another look at the Cal. 481 bumper automatic movement
|
 |
Wrist shot the first time I wore the watch.
|
I recently changed the straps of the two Powermatic watches and will show them in another post.
-
No comments:
Post a Comment