Few brands can so consistently and eloquently execute a timeless watch design quite like Jaeger-LeCoultre. And a piece that has recently put this expertise on full display is the brand’s Master Calendar series, originally released at Baselworld in 2014. This series isn?t based on any specific watch, but rather from the early years of triple-calendar moon-phase pieces from the late 1940s and early 1950s. During this era, triple-calendar watches and moon-phases were not the “casual rarity” they are today, but rather a useful tool in remembering the day, month, and moon cycle in an era before satellite time and weather apps. You might remember from Baselworld 2015 this watch?s appearance with a meteorite dial that gained it widespread praise; but whereas these ?space watches? quickly sold out of stock, the original, modern Master Calendar has remained as a central piece within Jaeger-LeCoultre’s larger, and excellent, Master collection.
The watch has a 39-mm case, available in steel or rose gold, with somewhat short and rounds lugs, and a small, simple crown. On its silver sunburst dial is an outer date ring with a red ?31? right above the 12 o?clock position, and a correspondingly red crescent-tipped hand slowly making its rounds, indicating the first part of the triple date, day-by-day. Moving inward, the dial features applied hour markers with Arabic numerals for the quarter-hour marks, and simple wedge markers at each of the other hours, whi...