Okay, so I recently got into this whole watch thing, and let me tell you, it’s a rabbit hole. Today, I want to talk about my little project trying to imitate the Jaeger-LeCoultre JLC Duomètre à Quantième Lunaire, specifically the classic style one. I saw it online and I just needed to know the magic of this.
First off, I started by looking up a bunch of pictures and videos. You know, just trying to get a feel for the watch. The Duomètre line is known for its “dual-wing” concept, which basically means it has two separate power sources – one for the time and another for the complications. That’s fancy watch talk for “it does a lot of cool stuff and has a backup battery basically”. This particular model, the Quantième Lunaire, shows the date and the moon phase, which is pretty neat.
Getting to Know the Mechanics
- Gathering Intel: I spent hours, maybe days, just staring at this watch. I found some forum posts, some articles, and a few videos that broke down the watch’s movement. I am not a watchmaker. It took a while.
- Understanding the Dual-Wing Thing: So, this dual-wing concept is a big deal. It means the complications, like the date and moon phase, don’t mess with the accuracy of the timekeeping. It’s like having two engines in a car, one for going fast and another for all the bells and whistles. This was hard to wrap my head around initially.
- Focusing on the Quantième Lunaire: This specific model has a date hand and a moon phase display. They usually sit at the bottom of the dial. I had to figure out how these two things worked, mechanically speaking.
Simulating the Look
Finding a Base: I decided to start with a simple, inexpensive watch I had lying around. Nothing fancy, just something with a similar size and a plain dial. A cheap watch will do just fine for this.
Dial Design: The dial of the Quantième Lunaire is pretty distinctive. It has two sub-dials, one for the running seconds and the other houses the time. The date and moon phase are usually at 6 o’clock. I tried to sketch this out on paper, just to get the layout right. Then I used some basic photo editing software to create a rough design.
Printing and Applying: I printed out my design on some thin, sticker-like paper. Then, very carefully, I cut it out and stuck it onto the dial of my base watch. This was the hardest part. One wrong move, and it’s all messed up. It looked… okay. Not perfect, but you get the idea.
Faking the Complications
Static Date and Moon: Obviously, I couldn’t replicate the actual mechanics of the date and moon phase. So, I just printed them in a fixed position. For the moon phase, I picked a full moon, because why not? It looked better that way I thought.
The “Jumping” Seconds: The Duomètre also has a “jumping” or “foudroyante” seconds hand that ticks six times per second. I couldn’t replicate that either. But, I thought about maybe adding a little extra hand to my design, just to give the illusion of something extra going on.
So, that’s where I’m at with my little project. It’s not a real Jaeger-LeCoultre, not by a long shot. But it was a fun way to learn about how these fancy watches work, and it kind of looks like the real thing if you squint. Maybe one day I’ll try this with a better base watch, or even try to add some actual moving parts. Who knows? It’s all about the journey, right? Also I learned that there are a lot of similar looking watches out there, and this may be a good way to test drive the look before taking the financial leap.
Click to consult