Jaeger-LeCoultre

Call it fate, or perhaps more appropriately a feeling of dissatisfaction that grew stronger. And with several incidents that really shook my belief in JLC as a consistent supplier of quality luxury goods, there was only one option left for me. I had to let this one go...

In 2009 I was looking for a watch to replace my daily wearer for almost 12 years, a TAG Heuer sEL Chronograph in solid steel. This watch was actually perfectly sized for me, at about 40mm. So as you can imagine I was a bit apprehensive when I decided to go for a 44mm dive watch with 12mm thickness. Nevertheless, it felt great on the wrist both because of the low weight, the smart lugs and the comfortable articulated rubber bracelet.

When I finally received my watch, after ordering it a few months in advance, I immediately discovered that some lume dust had contaminated the dial, and this was straight from the factory. A big dissapointment after waiting and paying a deposit up front. Thankfully my AD was quick to replace my watch and I had a new one from the factory about a month later. Now I originally ordered the watch with the leather strap, but soon realized I wanted a bracelet. So I ordered one with the AD, and went there to have it fitted a few weeks later.

That is when I was confronted with the second "quality" issue, the first one being the rampant lume dust on the dial. The person who adjusted the strap at the AD completely mangled the heads of the screws on the bracelet, and unfortunately I only discovered this when I was home. So for the second time I had to ship the watch back to the AD and this time to have the screws replaced.

A few days later I have the watch back, but unfortunately with a third quality issue. The case back had scratches on it, not hair lines mind you. And for those of you familiar with the case backs of the Master Compressor series you know they are polished with a mirror finish so they scratch easily. But these where not mere hairlines. So I get on the phone and talk to the AD explaining that I was really upset and that I expected a brand new watch to be flawless, and that I wanted to make the scratches myself thank you very much.

Now at this point I am about to give up on the whole deal, but the AD makes me an offer that I felt was fair. They gave me one service free of charge, and that meant I did not have to pay maintenance for another 10 years on the watch.

After a few weeks of wearing the watch on an almost daily basis I started to get used to the format. I actually wore the watch to work, my spare time and on holidays. It performed flawlessly, and to the credit of JLC it kept time very well for all the years I owned it. It timed some lovely moments that I had with my family. The only thing that bothered me a bit was the thickness and the tendency for the index triangle on the bezel to collect lint when wearing wool sweathers. Now this last thing would come back to haunt me.

One day when wearing the watch I suddenly noticed that the index triangle was gone. I tried to search for it but it was nowhere to be found, and considering its size I was probably never going to find it. My mind immediately brought up some pictures I had seen on the forum of another NSA where the whole ceramic bezel had come off and you could clearly see that there was only glue that kept the thing in place. I quickly concluded that the index triangle also was glued to the bezel. Luckily I actually found the triangle in the side pocket of my jacket a few days later. I had a competent watch maker put it back in place, but because of the design he could obviously not guarantee that it would not come loose again. After giving this a lot of thought I actually remembered that it is also very common on older submariners that the pearl in the index fell out of the bezel insert. How could JLC make such a faulty design, and still keep it unchanged in 2015? I suspect that this is a problem that more people will experience when using the watch on a daily basis. So consider this user feedback and a suggestion to improve the design (maybe to have the index sunk completely into the bezel).

Clearly this was the last straw for me, and I had a bad year to boot when this happened. So I decided it was time to let the watch go. My mind only dwelled on the negatives. The nagging feeling had actually started right after SIHH that year of purchase, when I found out that they changed the production model to have the text inscription on the alarm disc instead of the crystal as on the prototype.

Now, I cannot say with absolute certainty that I would have kept the watch if none of the quality issues had appeared. But I find myself longing for a simpler watch for daily wear. Maybe something around 40mm, medium profile, waterproof ... maybe with a date. Maybe a Datejust, Overseas, Nautilus, Geophysic reinterpretation ... who knows.

My faith in JLC has been compromised, but I certainly know they are capable of making great watches. I still have my JLC MUT 34 mm in solid steel, a lasting affair that has served me well for almost 10 years now.

Cheers,

Richard

More posts: DatejustGeophysicMaster Compressornautilus

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