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If you were to rank top-tier watch brands by how difficult their names are to pronounce, Jaeger-LeCoultre would claim first place by a Geneva mile (deceptively long because traffic plus teeny Euro streets). AJ Michalka, one half of the pop (and watch-collecting) duo Aly & AJ, tried her hand at saying it during the brand’s presentation of The Collectibles, its hand-picked collection of vintage treasures, at Jaeger-LeCoultre’s Beverly Hills boutique last Thursday night. “It's Zhe-zher LeCou-ture,” she told me, confidently. “I was looking at it online on the way here and my boyfriend was laughing at me. I was like, ‘No, babe, I gotta get this right, this is tripping me out.’ ” Lacking both a Swiss-German accent and the mettle necessary to flub the pronunciation in front of my peers, I simply called the brand JLC all night.
I’ve been eagerly awaiting the release of The Collectibles, organized for…JLC’s…190th anniversary, for months now. For The Collectibles, JLC sourced a clutch of the brand’s most covetable vintage watches, restored them, and is now putting the one-of-one pieces up for sale. (As the event wound down, the invited group of press, collectors, and dealers huddled together to watch an older gentleman in a chunky blue cardigan punch his credit card information in to secure a piece. Smart man: nearly all of the collection is gone already.) Jaeger released the first installment in January, which included shrunken-down tickers strung with Tahitian pearls and beautiful alarm-clock watches specially designed to help the wearer avoid getting parking tickets. Brilliant!
This second batch of Collectibles is as museum-worthy as the first. JLC proved that it knew about lacquer dials before they were cool with a Bordeaux-colored Reverso. The Quartermaster with a 24-hour dial, celebrating the brand’s entry to the American market, was a personal favorite. But the true star of the night was the hand-painted version of the Memovox, JLC’s alarm-clock watch. The deep blue dial, with its visible brush strokes, earned this piece the nickname “Lapis Lazuli.”
In addition to the pieces JLC had on display, the attendees brought a ton of firepower themselves. I scoped the best watches at the event and chatted with attendees about what they wore.
Rolex Daytona
Beautiful Rolex Daytona! Tell me about it.
Aly: I got this watch pretty recently as a Christmas gift from my husband. It's been one of my holy grail watches. I've wanted to own a Daytona, and the cream quality makes it really perfect, especially for a woman. It has a little femininity to it. It's a great daily watch. I wear this onstage, I'll wear it out to an event. It's just great and I think I'll have it for a very long time.
Do you own other Daytonas?
Aly: This is my only Daytona. I have another Rolex, a Bubbleback that's really cool.
Very different vibe. One's very modern and the other very vintage.
Aly: 100%. I tend to lean more towards vintage watches than new for whatever reason. Not that I don't find some of the newer watches to be beautiful, they are. But I just love that the patina, the history, the design of some of these older watches is different, because it was made in a different era. I tend to lean towards more gold than stainless steel. I feel like it's a watch I can wear and transition from day to night to stage then it's a watch I'll keep in my rotation. Obviously there's watches I want to hold onto forever because they have a sentimental reason or it was a gift where I'm like, "I don't know if I'll ever be able to part with that watch." I find watches to be a wonderful way of not only expressing a sense of style and accessory but the history behind it. And the fact that it tells the time and it's not using your cell phone is a nice bonus.
I just wrote a story about the watches that collectors wore on their wedding days and a bunch of different people told me they ended up selling that watch. I was like, Your wedding day watch?!
Aly: It's funny, my husband [who wore an outrageous gold Universal Geneve Tri-Compax at the event] always regrets that he didn't have a cooler watch on his wedding day. But I'm like, “Babe you weren't a watch collector or lover yet. You were just a guy who just had a watch and it was the one you wore through college.” I was saying to him, don't ever get rid of that watch because it has a sweet sentimental reason to keep it, even though it's not a watch that's valuable and you could flip it and be like, awesome. He always laughs like, “I wish I had a more impressive watch on our wedding day.” I'm like, “Well, look, we were 28 and 23, what did we fucking know about watches at that point in time? It's okay.”
Did you see AJ's watch? [We walk over to AJ, just a few feet away.]
Patek Philippe 404J
Oh, wow, it's beautiful.
Aly: It's dope, right? Is that from the '30s?
AJ: 1935.
What drew you to this watch?
AJ: My first purchase with Eric Wind [owner of Wind Vintage] was this watch. I talked to him about this watch because I was like, I really want something with some provenance and something I can look back on and appreciate and maybe pass down to a future child and something I'll keep in the family forever.
At the time, I only owned an [Audemars Piguet] that I absolutely loved. This was my second watch and I said specifically I wanted a Patek. He said he had something for me, a 404J [Wind's listing still exists here].
It was owned by a pilot named Henri-Laurent Dalliere, and he flew a record sea flight from Cherbourg, France to Ziguinchor, Senegal. When he landed, Patek awarded him with this watch. It's such an amazing story.
So I was like, this is something I would want to have forever, whether I'm onstage or just hanging out or whatever it might be. I was like, I absolutely love this watch.
How long have you had it?
AJ: I bought it as a gift to myself when I booked my first lead of a series on ABC [Schooled]. I was like, I want to do this to reward myself for the hard work and how long it took to get here, because I've been doing this for 20 years and it was a big deal.
A pair of microscopic vintage Jaeger-LeCoultres
Tell me about this piece.
It's the 101. It's made for Cartier, so you can see the brand name at top.
But it's a JLC movement.
It's the 101 movement, which is the smallest movement ever made [Queen Elizabeth famously wore the 101 during her coronation]. This is an early version, so this one dates to the '20s or '30s.
What got you interested in this watch?
My father was a watchmaker and taught watchmaking, so I grew up around it and these were always my favorites because they’re so tiny.
What's the second piece?
Also JLC, from a little bit later. A great everyday piece.
And you said you wear the round one on your shoes?
I have two of these, so I wear this one on my shoelaces sometimes. Occasionally, not for serious reasons, but to see if anyone is paying attention.
What brings you here tonight?
I run a watch material house. In the days before brands were so protective of their supplies, that's pretty much how watchmakers got different parts.
A JLC vintage Triple Calendar and Reverso
Tell me about the watch you're wearing.
It's a beautiful watch. I understand that Andy Warhol had the gold version of something very similar to this, but I love steel. The color of the red and the applied numerals just spoke to me.
Do you know the name of the model?
I don't know the name of the model, but it's the same movement that JLC sold to Vacheron Constantin and VC has a very similar watch with the same movement and triple calendar.
What's this olive strap?
The watch came that way. Perfectly sets the tone of the dial. I'm actually primarily a Universal Genève collector. I have quite a few of those, way more than anyone probably should have.
.Where does JLC fall in your collector diet?
I don't have as many. UG is what I'm passionate about but I love triple calendars. The more complicated the movement the better. I love vintage watches.
When was it produced?
In the early '50s.
And you’re double wristing!
This is a [JLC] Reverso Duo. Day and night indicator. You can use it to set the second side to track different time zones. You can have a travel watch as well with it. There's a story for this but I don't know if it should be recorded....
I basically walked into a shop in London that had a bunch of different brands. I asked, “OK what do I need to do to get a [Rolex] GMT? Because I know you're not just going to sell me the steel Rolex GMT just like that.” So they were hemming and hawing, "There aren't any available." And they saw me look at this watch too and said, "You know what, give me a moment..."—they came back—"if you get that one, we might be able to get you a [GMT]." So I'm like, "OK!"
Do you usually double wrist?
I do double wrist every now and then. Unfortunately the Apple Watch is sometimes on the other wrist.
Do you have a favorite from the Collectibles?
I love the blue dial Lapis Memovox.
Vintage LeCoultre
Tell me about what you're wearing tonight.
This is LeCoultre, American market, Master Mariner. It's probably early '70s. It's kind of a little sleeper of a watch, it's a little different. It seems to make people smile.
How did this watch come into your possession?
This watch is actually a loaner from a good friend who is in Arlington, Virginia, and he let me bring it with me.
Do you have a favorite from the Collectibles collection?
I do. There's one I want very badly, the Lapis Memovox. It's unbelievable and I never get tired of looking at it.