Service: Jaeger LeCoultre calibre 891-447

Something a bit different today – a lovely Jaeger LeCoultre with day, date and month. It’s a 1995 watch, and belonged to Daniel’s grandfather. He doesn’t know if it’s ever been serviced, and the month change happens on the 26th, so something is wrong. Also, you can see that the hour and minute hand aren’t quite as they should be. The hour hand shows almost 5, but the minute hand shows a quarter to.

Also, the month wheel changer gets stuck.

There are huge amounts of dirt under the case back, but none of it has made its way into the movement, which is good. Feast your eyes on the rotor!

We have two service marks – one from 99 and one from 03, if I read them correctly. Have a look at the dirt on the case back…

Not too bad – the watch is too fast, but the amplitude and beat error are within what’s acceptable.

No lack of dirt here!

Everything nicely executed, no wire springs, well decorated – what’s not to like?

Jewels everywhere, beautiful decoration.

No lack of wheels – the gear train and the wheels for the auto-winder overlap here a bit, so it’s not easy to tell what’s what.

The bottom plate has two plates on top of it to separate out the different functions.

Even when you dig deeper down, the execution of the movement is still faultless.

Three plates, bridges, wheels, screws – no lack of parts!

As usual, I start with a new mainspring.

I start off with the gear train. Look at the little ratchet for the winder. Yes, it’s got a wire spring, but that’s a great detail.

I start off with the core movement, just to get it ticking. No use in putting anything else together if that’s not right!

I just wind the mainspring one turn, and get a beautiful result.

With the movement beating beautifully, I can work my way through the various bottom plate assemblies.

The dial has some stains and spots around the edge, and I won’t be able to clean those up without damaging the dial. But the general state of it is good, so nothing to be done here.

Ready for casing.

Fully wound, we get a super straight line on the timegrapher. Great performance.

Yes, it’s Tuesday the 4th of December 😉 MAR = Mardi = Tuesday.

A great watch.

 

10 thoughts on “Service: Jaeger LeCoultre calibre 891-447

  1. Thank you for such an incredible standard of work Christian, the watch works so much better now! Interesting to see that it had been serviced, although not recently and I am astounded at the amount of dirt inside! As usual, the pictures are wonderful.

    Thank you again!

    Daniel

  2. Aaahhrrggg!!! I really must stop filling my drawers with junk and buy more wisely! That is, imho, a beautiful movement. And a refreshing change from, like, a dozen of Omegas!

  3. The 891/447 calibre movement is supposed to have 270 individual parts, and a 22 carat gold weight on the rotor. I see on the detail in the photograph, that there is a 21C stamp on the rotor. I guess that this is means the gold content is 21 carat?

  4. I can’t believe the amount of dirt on the case-back, which has worked its way past the movement holder/spacer ring. This must have entered the case since the last service in 2003. Was there a neoprene gasket present on the case-back?

  5. Yes, that’s lovely – I especially like all the little detail work… which begs the question, did you fill in the provided Service Date form?

    😉

Leave a Reply to Christian Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.