The 1940's Jaeger LeCoultre Triple Calendar Ref. 2904

Jeager LeCoultre is known for the watchmaking prowess over the lifetime of their brand. It is a well known-fact that they produced watch movements for many of the formidable brands we all know and love, like Vacheron Constantin, IWC and Audemars Piguet. A good example of the incredible watchmaking the manufacture achieved is the triple calendar watches they produced in the 1940’s. These watches on the rare side and aesthetically would make any collectors proverbial mouth water.

The triple calendar complications have become increasingly popular as collectors have become more interested with traditional complications like the annual calendars watches from brands like Patek Philippe. It is documented that to commemorate the life and work of Jacques-David LeCoultre who passed in 1948, Jaeger LeCoultre produced the caliber 484/1A triple calendar movement. There were 5,000 movements produced, and they were cased in various watches. Some in the round case like this watch, others were cased in rectangular cases that are also a very sought-after watch.

The watches came in various case metals, 500 being cased in gold and only distributed in the European markets. The remainder were distributed in the USA in steel or gold-filed cases. The round versions of these watches were known as the reference 2904.

The triple calendar watches were introduced a few years before the caliber 484 movement, however. The caliber 451/A was introduced in 1943 and the caliber 464/A in 1944. The reference 2904 came in two main dial configurations, one with applied hours markets with the numerals 3, 9 and 12 and the other with applied hour markers that did not have the numerals. There were also triple calendar moon-phase versions of this watch that were released and are highly desired by vintage watch collectors. The reference was produced up until 1949.

The watch you see today is a very well preserved version of this desired reference with the caliber 464/A movement. This version comes in a 36mm stainless steel case, implying it was sold in the USA market. It features applied sword and pyramid hour markers, instead of the 3, 9 and 12 numeral hour markers. As with all the reference 2904, it has a pointer date that runs around the outside of the dial with a red pointer arrow that matches the colour of the date numbers. It then has two windows towards the center of the dial that display the month and day of the week. The last complication is the sub-seconds dial located at 6 o’clock.

The dial of the watch, original cream, has faded nicely to a dark creamy grey tone. The patina is not even across the entire dial, notably in the sub-seconds dial, but it does detract from quality of the beautiful watch. Amazingly, the watch has fairly distinct tear-drop lugs. These lugs extend quite far from the 36mm case making it fit on the larger side of 36mm. What also is beautiful about this watch is the fact that the case has a triple-step to it, giving it depth when looked at from the side.

The watch is on a brown leather strap that has a red tone to the stitching. The tone of the bracelet brings out the red font of the date around the outside of the dial as well as the font of the month and day of the week wheels. These watches are on the rare side of things when compared to other watches of similar production and show the reason why JLC competes for wrist time of vintage watch enthusiasts.

This watch is available on our store here.

Enjoy!