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This anthology of memories ends with several big pieces. The first was a watch I didn’t know I needed until I encountered it at work in the fall of 2014. It was the Master Grande Memovox in platinum. That model, launched as a limited edition in the early 2000s, used the alarm/perpetual calendar tandem first employed on JLC’s 1989 Grand Reveil.
Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Grande Memovox
But while the 1989 watch looked like a warthog, my circa-2001 Grande Memovox was dead sexy with a platinum case and a blue sunburst dial.
Add a hanging bronze alarm gong, IWC maestro Kurt Klaus’ programmed sequential perpetual calendar, plus a massive folding clasp, and the result was sublime. Seriously – until you’ve worn a large platinum watch with a platinum clasp and full platinum caseback, you don’t know what decadence is. At over half a pound (over 200 grams) unpolished, the Grande Memovox inspired awe.
I let my sister’s groom wear the watch at their wedding, and the look on his face when I handed him the Grande was one of shock and terror. Shock, because he couldn’t believe how much it weighed, and terror, because he almost dropped it when he took hold.
Still, the Grande Memovox was a friendly everyday practical platinum watch, which isn’t something I write very often. The leap year of 2016 was a blast. Its alarm was sufficient to wake me on trips or adventures. I wore that watch to Dollar Tree, and nobody batted an eye. It was the epitome of “stealth wealth.”
Granted, I wasn’t testing my luck in the London or Paris of 2024, but I learned that you can wear an insane watch almost anywhere as long as it’s not some kind of hype model or brand. Try that with your Lamborghini Aventador or Rolls-Royce Cullinan. The Grande Memovox would have been the ultimate sleeper had it not been for my other Reverso.
That’s right; I had two Reversos. The second was platinum by name, and platinum by nature. “Platinum Reverso No. 2” sounds like something a German brand would concoct, but even the name of this French-Swiss time machine reflected its stunning subtlety. Launched as a limited edition in 2003, the No. 2 was tailor-made for retro grouches like me who deplore dial-side tourbillons.
Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Tourbillon in platinium
Its dial was composed of ruthenium-coated 18-karat white gold with Breguet Arabic numerals painted by hand in a silver-powder paint. A co-axial power reserve indicator sat under the hands at center.
Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Tourbillon movement side
The No. 2 gets hardcore when you flip the reversible case. Solid 18-karat white gold caliber 848 packs splendor in spades. Modeled after the layout of the 1940s JLC model 170 trials tourbillon, the caliber 848 had stunning architecture to match its coruscating level of finish. It also linked the No. 2 to the similar aesthetic of the first Reverso Tourbillon of 1993.
For a package roughly 26mm x 42mm, the mass-density of this watch’s feature set rivaled any neutron star. To this day, the Platinum No. 2 remains the only watch I sold without losing money, the finest watch I’ve ever owned, and, along with the Duomètre, the JLC I miss the most.
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