LeCoultre Wrist Alarm – American Market – 1950s

LeCoultre Wrist Alarm – 14k Gold Plated (14K Gold Filled) – American Market – 1950s

Description
LeCoultre alarm watch produced for the American market in the 1950s, a direct cousin of Jaeger-LeCoultre’s famous Memovox. For customs-duty reasons, watches destined for the United States were simply signed “LeCoultre” and cased locally, in American cases whose designs were often bolder than in Europe. Before the Memovox name took hold across the Atlantic at the end of the decade, the dial bore the words “Wrist Alarm,” now highly sought after by collectors.

The two-tone dial, remarkably rich in its graphics, combines a cream outer ring with black Arabic numerals and applied gold baton hour markers, and a sunburst-brushed champagne inner disc, dotted with gold points and blue markers, which is used to set the alarm with its triangle. Gold leaf hands and a fine blued central seconds hand. The 14k gold-plated case stands out for its spectacular winged lugs, emblematic of ’50s American style, and for its two crowns: the upper one for the alarm, the lower one for the time.

The caseback bears an original, dated dedication engraving, a moving testament to the history of the watch, given as a gift at the time.

Specifications

• Case: 14k gold plated (14K Gold Filled), round, winged lugs,
• Diameter 32mm excluding crowns
• Dial: two-tone cream and champagne, signed LeCoultre “Wrist Alarm”
• Functions: hours, minutes, central seconds, mechanical alarm
• Movement: manual winding, LeCoultre caliber [489/1], 17 jewels
• Crystal: acrylic
• Caseback: period dedication engraving
• Strap: brown leather, generic pin buckle