Okay, so I wanted to get into the whole watch thing, and after looking around, I decided to try and make a fake Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Ultra Thin Perpetual Calendar. Yeah, the name’s a mouthful, but the watch looked slick. It’s got this classic vibe that I really dig, and I thought, why not give it a shot?
First off, I started digging around for info on this watch. Turns out, this Jaeger-LeCoultre, or JLC as some folks call it, is pretty high-end. I mean, the real ones are way out of my budget. But that didn’t stop me. I found out that the real deal is about 39mm across and 9.4mm thick. Pretty slim for a watch with so much going on inside. I also read that JLC is known for making some really complex and innovative watches. This one’s got a perpetual calendar, which is just a fancy way of saying it keeps track of the date, even in leap years, without needing to be adjusted.
Now, I’m no watchmaker, but I’m pretty handy. I started by finding some cheap watch movements online. I knew I wouldn’t be able to replicate the actual mechanism of a JLC, but I figured I could get something that at least looked the part. I ordered a few different ones to see which would fit best in a case I also found online. The case was a bit of a gamble, but it had a similar size to the real Master Ultra Thin, so I went for it.
Next up, the dial. This was tricky. I wanted it to look like the JLC, with all those subdials for the day, date, month, and moon phase. I ended up designing it myself on my computer and printing it out on some high-quality paper. It wasn’t perfect, but it gave the right impression. I carefully cut it out and glued it to the base dial of one of the movements I bought.
Putting it all together was a real pain. I had to be super careful not to mess up the hands or scratch the case. I used some basic tools I had lying around, plus some tweezers and a magnifying glass I picked up. It took a few tries, but eventually, I managed to get the movement into the case, the dial attached, and the hands in place.
The final product? Well, it didn’t fool any experts, but it looked pretty decent on my wrist. It definitely had that classic style I was going for. And honestly, the whole process was a blast. I learned a ton about watches and got to flex my DIY muscles. Sure, it’s not a real Jaeger-LeCoultre, but it’s my little creation, and that’s pretty cool.
Would I recommend this to others? Maybe, if you’re into tinkering and don’t mind a challenge. It’s a fun project, and you end up with a unique piece. Just don’t expect to pass it off as the real thing. And who knows, maybe this is just the start of my watchmaking adventures. I’ve got my eye on a few other designs now, and I’m itching to try my hand at them. Stay tuned!
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