Oh Le Coultre - What Have I Done

Northernman
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Lovely watch and top notch movement!

The history of VC/JLC cooperation has been listed in this post:
I have also seen VC branded watches from the 60's with JLC calibers.
 
Patrick Dixon
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VXN doesn't mean Vacheron Constantine at all - it's simply the export code for JLC movements exported to the US. This is a Jaeger LeCoultre movement and dial cased in the US in a US made case, as was common at the time to avoid paying US import taxes on products manufactured abroad. JLC made movements for VC, but never the other way around.
 
gatorcpa
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JimInOz JimInOz
Any opinions, advice, or even some history on this brand (before JLC).

Not before JLC, which began in 1937. More like parallel with JLC, at least through the end of the 1970's.

Cases were generally made in the USA, while the movements were made in Switzerland. Omega (and many others) had similar arrangements with their US distributors at that time. All to avoid US customs as Patrick pointed out, although some gold-filled and 14K gold cases were styled to meet American tastes.

Hope this helps,
gatorcpa
 
FRAME
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A JLC P812 for this price is a steal! I can't see the movement number? My guess it 's from around 1956 ( movement nr between 1.130.000 and 1.225.000 ?)? Beautifull signed crown too.

I 've got a P 813 from 1957
 
U
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A little more detail on what's already been said:

JLC and VC sent movements / dials / hands to the Longines plant in NY to be installed into US made cases by Ross, K&E, Star, L&K, Wadsworth, etc. to create LeCoultre. The brand was run out of the Longines offices, but they had a separate sales staff, marketing, and accounting because they were considered a separate company. The US had very high tariffs on importing precious metals and jewels. You'll often see the import codes on movements inside 14K cases that signify it was cased in America. Some calibers even had less jewels (El Primero - 17 jewels for the US Movado versions versus 31 jewels elsewhere) to lower these taxes. There were many movements even marked "UNADJUSTED" because there was a tax on that too.
 
FRAME
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ok, and VXN stands for the American importer, then?
 
FRAME
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So why do we find it in so many JLC movements, which are cased by Lecoultre USA?
 
U
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VC and JLC both imported to Longines so they partnered under one code.
 
gatorcpa
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U ulackfocus
It's the import code for Vacheron.

Uh, no. It has nothing to do with Vacheron per se. At least not the Swiss watch manufacturer Vacheron & Constantin.

Vacheron & Constantin and LeCoultre had the same division of the Longines-Wittnauer company import their watches in the 1950's and '60's.

To be technically correct, it's the import mark for both Vacheron & Constantin and LeCoultre. It just so happens that the first letter is a "V", so many people think that it stands for something that it does not.

I don't want to give the eBay sellers any more false information to disseminate.
gatorcpa
 
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