What we have here is a round dress Jaeger Lecoultre Master Ultra Thin Moon watch that combines in-house watchmaking with a dial that exhibits multiple in-house métiers, including enamel and guilloché. The movement is an upgraded version of the Caliber 925, which we’ve seen before in the Master Ultra Thin Moon Phase, a watch that has appeared in a number of earlier executions and has been successful for JLC. Interesting to note here: while the Cal. 925 has a power reserve of about 40 hours, this one will run for 70 hours, meaning you can wear it through the work week, take it off for the weekend, and go back to a watch whose date function, moon phase, and time won’t need to be reset before heading out on Monday morning.
The combination of an ultra-thin case and an enamel dial has the capacity to result in a very refined dress watch, and I think what we have here is definitely that. JLC really shines when it comes dress watches like the Master Ultra Thin and, of course, the legendary Reverso. We tend to think of JLC in the context of being a movement maker. And they are of course that. To this day they supply calibers and ébauches to some of the most estimable names in high watchmaking. Here we see two other facets of JLC’s in-house artisanal expertise: enamel dialmaking and hand-guilloché. JLC is one of a handful of watchmakers that do pretty much everything in-house when it comes to its watchmaking, and that penchant for vertical integration extends to highly specialized aspects of craftsmanship and decoration that are commonly outsourced at other high-end brands. The closer you look at this watch’s dial in these supplied pictures, you see what looks to be a really stunning piece of workmanship. Even the date display has a frosted finish, with the numbers 1 through 31 rising in relief against that background.
I spent the better part of a month with the Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Ultra Thin Moon. From the outset I was pleasantly surprised with the innate qualities of what was a very charming timepiece. It was light, it was undramatic and superfluous to starry-eyed attention. The Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Ultra Thin Moon is no doubt a classical dress watch, but its capabilities of being worn both casually and semi-formally were quite astounding.
The Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Ultra Thin Moon‘s case measured 39mm in diameter and a wonderfully slim 9.90mm. For someone that routinely wears plus-40mm sized watches, I must admit I was caught out with just how well the Master Ultra Thin Moon wore. It was beautifully comfortably, super light and was as satisfying to wear as it was to look at. The silvered grey, sunray finished dial gleam in the light and played the part of the perfect backdrop to that exquisite blue moonphase.
I feel that the attentiveness Jaeger has put into this watch deserves to be commented on. I’m not talking about bevelled edges, anglage hand polished surfaces or Geneva striping. What I mean is the meticulous attention to even the smallest of possible nuances. A blued steel seconds hand, contrasting against the silvered grey dial. The silver date hand, contrasting against the deep blue sky of the moonphase. The polished dauphine hands. The sharp hour markers. The “-Que” at the end of “Automatique”, enunciating that the Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Ultra Thin Moon is, indeed, an automatic watch.
The Master Ultra Thin Moon is powered by the Jaeger-LeCoultre Calibre 925/1 automatic movement. The movement was finished remarkably well, with superlative details adorning all of the exposed movement components, capped off spectacularly with that divine pink gold rotor. From the perspective of practicality, the Calibre 925/1 offers an abundance of information topped with the almost hypnotic romanticism of a moon phase indicator.
After spending such a long period of time with the Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Ultra Thin Moon, I’ve come to an odd yet revelatory conclusion. And as a staunch advocate of complicated watchmaking, I say to you this. Keep your tourbillons, your tidal indicators, your minute repeaters and your perpetual calendars. This is all you really need. Simple, timeless and resonating with classicism.
Jaeger Lecoultre Master Ultra Thin Moon
