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Jaeger-LeCoultre 8-Day Pyramid Clock 'Lapis Lazuli', 1960s

DocumentedDocumented from a dealer's listing; attribution and date as stated by the dealer.
Maker / attribution
Jaeger LeCoultre (maker)
Date
1960s
Country of origin
Unrecorded in source
Object type
Clock
Stock no.
Product 6818064891991
Credit line
Dealer listing, Analog/Shift (product 6818064891991)
Catalogue title (original)
Jaeger-LeCoultre 8-Day Pyramid Clock 'Lapis Lazuli' (English)

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Record summary

Catalogued by Analog/Shift (dealer), New York (stock number Product 6818064891991), this is a clock by Jaeger LeCoultre, dated 1960s. The Atlas places it in the Modern Mechanical Horology period (1945 – 1969) of its Clocks collection. The record is illustrated with 6 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

Dealer description — Analog/Shift

Sure, Analog:Shift is a business built around the love of watches — mostly mechanical watches. But, in essence, it’s our love for timepieces and timekeeping in general that are the common themes throughout the items we procure. And that includes the love of clocks in general: pocket watches, travel clocks, and more. After all, in the couple hundred years before the First World War, personal timekeeping was all about the pocket watch, and before that, it was larger clocks that were front and center, horologically. We still believe a good clock — such as a classic travel model from the 1920s or 1930s — has a place in the watch lover’s collection. This particular timepiece is a truly incredible 8-day ‘pyramid’ clock from La Grand Maison itself, Jaeger-LeCoultre. Housed in an 8” x 7.4” x 5.25” lacquered brass and lapis lazuli pyramidal case with a brass winding key, a brass winding crown, and an acrylic crystal, it features a lapis lazuli dial with a brushed brass rehaut featuring quadrant ‘Arabic’ and ‘wedge’ indices, a matching ‘dauphine’ handset, and the Jaeger-LeCoultre signature. Powering the clock is a hand-wound, 8-day movement from Jaeger-LeCoultre, and completing the package is a 9” x 8.62” x 5” blue leather, signed box with brass hinges and additional, spare screws. Dating to the 1960s, it’s a truly magnificent piece of horological art, the likes of which are extremely difficult to come by today.

Historical context

Modern Mechanical Horology (1945 – 1969)

Tool watches for divers, pilots and astronauts; electric watches anticipate the electronic age.

Post-war clocks combined new materials and industrial design: plastic and metal cases, battery-powered transistor movements from the late 1950s, and design classics by George Nelson, Max Bill and others. The first caesium atomic clock (1955) moved the definition of time from astronomy to physics.

Read the period in the timelineMore clocks from this periodEarlier: Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking

Atlas type guide

Domestic clocks

A clock combines four systems: a source of power (falling weight, coiled spring, or later electricity), a gear train that divides time, an escapement and oscillator that regulate it (foliot, pendulum or balance), and an indicating system of dial and hands or a bell. Its history runs from the large iron weight-driven clocks of the late thirteenth century to Renaissance spring-driven table clocks, the pendulum revolution of 1656, the factory clocks of the nineteenth century and electric and quartz clocks of the twentieth.

Domestic clocks also reflect regional furniture and decorative traditions — English longcase and bracket clocks, French pendules, Viennese regulators, Black Forest and American shelf clocks — and therefore record changing tastes as much as technical progress.

What to look for

  • How the clock is powered: weights, spring barrel, fusee, electric coil.
  • The oscillator: foliot, short pendulum, long seconds pendulum or balance.
  • Whether it strikes: hour only (count wheel) or hours and quarters (rack striking).
  • The maker or retailer's name on dial and movement, and any factory trademarks.
  • Signs of alteration — replaced dials, converted escapements, 'married' cases.

Dating clues

  • Before 1656 clocks used foliots or balances; after, most domestic clocks have pendulums.
  • Anchor escapements spread after c. 1670; minute hands became common at the same time.
  • Factory production in America and Germany transformed prices after c. 1840.

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.

Read next:Verge escapementAnchor (recoil) escapementFoliot

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