By TLex The Jaeger-LeCoultre Deep Sea Vintage Chronograph is a tribute to a legendary dive watch, the Memovox Deep Sea, the first mechanical dive watch to be fitted with an alarm in watchmaking history; it's mechanism was used to remind divers when it was time to return to the surface. This historical diver was fitted with a LeCoultre 815 automatic calibre. It was lovingly reproduced by JLC in 2011 as the Memovox Tribute to Deep Sea.
The new Deep Sea Vintage Chrono, which will be officially unveiled at SIHH 2012 next week follows in the same vein, taking its vintage design cues such as a simple black fixed bezel (there were no dive watch standards in the 50s that called rotational bezels), a classic black dial and authentic Plexiglass crystal right of the pages of JLC's history books. Notice, too the hands and hour-markers, which have been applied with a warm orange-tinted Superluminova reminiscent of the lume used by the 1959 Memovox Deep Sea.
The watch is powered by the latest 37 jewel Jaeger-LeCoultre Calibre 751G with 65hrs of power-reserve. It is housed in a 40.5mm stainless steel watch case. We can't see it here, but the caseback bears the same engraving depicting a frogman surrounded by bubbles as the original Deep Sea. The watch is finished with an embossed black tropic-style calfskin leather strap so as to replicate the exact look of the straps that the historical Deep Sea models were fitted with.
This is a watch that is no doubt aimed at the connoisseur rather than diving professional, it's water-resistance is just 100 meters, but its design faithfully follows in the footsteps of its Deep Sea lineage and it evokes a certain amount of nostalgia for the days when divers were more than just divers they were pioneers of the deep; JLC delivers another fitting tribute!
