
Wristwatches · Wristwatch
1940s Jaeger LeCoultre Futurematic 10K GF watch
- Maker / attribution
- JAEGER (maker)
- Date
- 1940s
- Historical period
- Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking (1900 – 1945)
- Country of origin
- Unrecorded in source
- Object type
- Wristwatch
- Materials / technique
- gold, yellow gold
- Auction house
- LiveAuctioneers auction archive
- Lot
- Item 64237341
- Credit line
- Auction lot record: lot 140, August Fine Antiques, Art, Glass, & More, Elite Decorative Arts (2018), via LiveAuctioneers
- Catalogue title (original)
- 1940's JAEGER LECOULTRE FUTUREMATIC 10K GF WATCH (English)
View the source record (auction lot) ↗ (opens another website in a new tab)Suggest a correction
Record summary
Catalogued by LiveAuctioneers auction archive (lot Item 64237341), this is a wristwatch by JAEGER, dated 1940s. The Atlas places it in the Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking period (1900 – 1945) of its Wristwatches collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: gold, yellow gold. The record is illustrated with 4 photographs.
Assembled from the source record's structured fields. Dates and attributions are given as the source states them; where a field is missing the Atlas leaves it blank rather than estimating.
Catalogue description
Lot description — Elite Decorative Arts
A gent's vintage estate, circa 1940's, Jaeger LeCoultre "Futurematic" self winding mechanical wristwatch. Has a 10k yellow gold filled case. White dial with applied Arabic numerals and notches. Gold tone hour andminute hands (minute hand has bending) with sub seconds and Power-Reserve dial. Has automatic mechanical 17 jewel movement numbered 497; 497/1; 1246020; VXN. Case measures approx. 35mm diameter East to West. Appears wind and run properly. Has no band.
Historical context
Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking (1900 – 1945)
The wristwatch displaces the pocket watch; waterproof cases, self-winding and grand complications.
The wristwatch overtook the pocket watch. Military use in the First World War, aviation, water-resistant cases (1926), automatic winding (1923–31), rectangular Art Deco designs and early chronographs and calendars defined the period.
Read the period in the timelineMore wristwatches from this periodEarlier: Industrial Revolution
Atlas type guide
Wristwatches
Bracelet watches were worn by women from the early nineteenth century — Breguet made one for Caroline Murat, Queen of Naples, in 1810–12 — but the wristwatch only became a man's instrument with military use and aviation in the early twentieth century. Between the World Wars it overtook the pocket watch; the 1920s and 1930s brought rectangular Art Deco cases, water-resistant cases and the first automatic winding systems.
After 1945 the wristwatch became a carrier of identity — dress watches, sports and dive watches, chronographs, calendars — produced by Swiss, American, Japanese, German, Soviet and Chinese industries. The quartz revolution after 1969 and the mechanical renaissance since the 1990s, including the rise of independent watchmakers, complete the story.
What to look for
- The reference number (between the lugs or inside the case back) and serial number, the starting point for dating.
- The calibre: its maker and number are often stamped under the dial or on the bridge.
- Originality of dial, hands and crown — refinished ('redial') dials are common.
- Case material marks: 18K/750, 14K/585, stainless steel, gold-filled, plated.
Dating clues
- Wire-lug cases: before c. 1925.
- Water-resistant screw-down cases: from 1926.
- Quartz movements: from 1969; sapphire crystals widespread after c. 1980.
General guidance written by the Atlas editors about this kind of object. It is not a statement about this particular piece; for that, rely on the source record above and on physical examination.
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