LECOULTRE Wrist Alarm 10K GF 1950s

The watch presented here is the LeCoultre "Wrist Alarm", the alarm wristwatch LeCoultre made for the American market.

LeCoultre put an alarm into a wristwatch for the first time in 1950, with its first alarm calibre, Cal.489. In Europe the model became known as the Memovox. In the United States it was sold as the "Wrist Alarm", and the line moved on to the second-generation calibre fitted here, Cal.814. Alarm watches were a crowded field at the time, with the Vulcain Cricket and alarm movements from the ébauche maker A. Schild all competing. LeCoultre kept developing its own, and in the late 1950s it produced Cal.815, the first automatic alarm movement. The Memovox name is still in use today, and the "Wrist Alarm" is part of where it started.

Cal.814 does not follow the traditional layout of the Jura workshops. For practical and structural reasons, most of the movement sits under one large two-thirds plate, and the result is a bold, clean face that is a pleasure to look at. It is hand-wound, with 17 jewels, 18,000 beats per hour and a screw balance. There are two crowns. The one at 2 o'clock winds and sets the alarm, and the one at 4 o'clock winds the watch and sets the time. The movement also carries the import code of Vacheron Constantin-LeCoultre, the company that brought these movements into the United States.

The case is what catches the eye first. The lugs are angled outward in four directions, a geometric, almost exotic shape that gives the watch a look of its own. At 35mm it was a bold size for the period. The case is 10K gold filled, and the caseback is stamped "CASED AND TIMED IN U.S.A. BY LECOULTRE". On the dial, the LeCoultre logo and the words "WRIST ALARM" are printed in blue.

We fitted the watch with a beige leather strap, chosen to suit it and not original to the watch, on an original LeCoultre buckle. An alarm you can actually use, in a case shape that belongs to this period, makes it a watch to wear rather than keep in a drawer.