LeCoultre Memovox - Wrist Alarm - Caliber 814 - Circa Early 1960s

This LeCoultre Memovox dates to the early 1960s, the height of the space age, when a man could ride a rocket into orbit and be back on the ground the same day. On the wrist it looks like a clean gold dress watch, until you notice it has two crowns instead of the usual one. The second one winds an alarm. Set it, and when the hour comes, a hammer inside strikes a pin set into the caseback and the whole watch buzzes against the wrist like a cricket.

For a generation, no watchmaker could make a wrist alarm work. The attempts went back to 1914, but a bell small enough to wear was always too faint to wake a sleeping man, and no one solved it until the years after the war. Among the houses that did was Jaeger-LeCoultre, which supplied movements to Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet, and Vacheron Constantin and was known as the watchmaker's watchmaker. It built its version around two mainsprings, one to run the time and one to drive the alarm, so the two never drew on each other, and it called the result the Memovox, from memory and voice.

In the United States, Jaeger-LeCoultre sold the Memovox under the LeCoultre name and called it the Wrist Alarm, casing the movements here to avoid the duty on finished watches. The movement is caliber 814, a hand-wound, seventeen jewels, signed LeCoultre, made from the mid-1950s until 1964. Of its two crowns, the lower winds and sets the time, while the upper winds the alarm and moves the central pointer to the hour you want it to sound, read against the ring of markers inside the dial.

The outer chapter of the dial is aged silver, spotted with age, and carries applied gold markers, bold Arabic numerals at the quarters, the LeCoultre signature beneath the twelve and Swiss at the foot. Within it sits the gold alarm ring, marked off in blue hashes. The center inside that has warmed to a soft yellow patina. The case is gold-filled over a stainless steel back, the gold scratched and worn from years on the wrist, on a gold-tone bracelet whose originality I cannot confirm. It runs, and the alarm sounds when it is set. Its service history is unknown.

Terms: Please review all photos carefully as they are a part of the listing. This is a vintage timepiece. Accuracy, power reserve, and water resistance are not guaranteed. Vintage watches may require periodic service. Performance can vary with wear, temperature, and position. I am happy to service any unserviced watch listed on the site, please inquire about service charges when purchasing.

All sales final.