Okay, so, let me tell you about this little project I got myself into. I’ve been eyeing this Jaeger-LeCoultre JLC Duomètre à Quantième Lunaire watch for a while, right? It’s a beautiful piece, but the price tag? Oof, way out of my league. So, I thought, why not try to find a decent imitation?
I started digging around, and boy, is it a jungle out there. There are so many replicas, and let me tell you, not all of them are created equal. I read somewhere that JLC dropped this Duometre collection back in 2007, and it was a pretty big thing because it uses two separate barrels and gear trains. Now, I’m no watch expert, but that sounded fancy and complicated, which probably made it even harder to replicate properly.
My first move was to look at some pictures online. You know, try to compare them to the real deal. I found a few that looked pretty good, at least in the photos. But pictures can be deceiving, right? So I decided to order one that caught my eye.
When it finally arrived, I was pretty excited. I ripped open that package and there it was. It looked good, I’ll give it that. But the real test was to see what’s inside.
Getting a Second Opinion
- I’m no watchmaker, so I took it to a friend who knows a thing or two about watches.
- He took one look at it, opened the case, and his face kind of fell.
- He said it didn’t look anything like a genuine JLC movement.
Bummer, right? I mean, I wasn’t expecting a perfect replica, but I was hoping for something at least a little closer to the real thing. It seems that this whole “Duometre” thing with the two barrels is pretty hard to fake. Apparently, it’s supposed to be super accurate because of how they separated the power, but this one? Not so much. I don’t know about the accuracy, I didn’t wear it long enough to really find out.
Lesson Learned?
I guess the lesson here is that you get what you pay for. Trying to find a good imitation of a high-end watch like this is a real gamble. There are a lot of details, like the serial number on the movement, that are hard to get right. I read that the serial number is on the movement, either on the back or under the dial. I’m pretty sure the one I got didn’t have one. Also the production year of the movement might be 1-2 years earlier than the case’s, I don’t know how to tell the year, they all just look like metal to me. And even if they look decent on the outside, the insides are probably where they cut corners.
So, yeah, that’s my story. It was a bit of a letdown, but hey, you live and learn. Maybe someday I’ll be able to afford the real Jaeger-LeCoultre, but until then, I’ll just keep dreaming.
Click to consult