Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Control Date Black Dial Q1548470 Watch Review

Hi, this is Tim of the 1916 Company. Welcome and thanks for logging on. If you love this watch, email me. Tim also at the1916company.com for purchase pricing and availability questions concerning this watch. This watch, or at least this variant of this watch, launched in 2015. This may be the most appealing three-hand date watch Jaeger-LeCoultre has ever made. You're looking at the Master Control and this is the black dial variant that debuted at the Estee Lauder in 2015. In steel, it's a beautifully sized watch. 39 millimeters in diameter, 9 millimeters thick from lug to lug, 47 millimeters with a 20 millimeter spacing between the lugs. I'll throw it on my wrist, which is 16 centimeters in circumference. Now the strap is high quality, very stiff, not broken in. So I'm pulling it tightly and it's compressing my wrist. Take my word for it. This watch will wear just fine on a wrist as small as 14 centimeters circumference and it'll easily slide under a cuff. No problems whatsoever there. The Master Control grew out of a watch called the Master Grande Tai. Back in 1992, that watch was the first to go through the 41.6 day fully assembled Jaeger-LeCoultre Master 1000 hours control test. An evaluation of the fully cased up watch that went beyond the COSC's bare movement test. And so these Master Controls have a timing tolerance that was believed to be minus one plus six. When this watch was made, different JLC models had different timing tolerances with the lowest bar being for relatively small, older shaped Reverso calibers. But the Master Control was always something of a flagship in that regard. And so the timing tolerance was quite exacting, but the 1000 hours control tests more winding efficiency, power reserve, water resistance, overall durability, and a six position test of chronometry. So you can see this watch is a remarkably deluxe piece in spite of being compact in size and simple outwardly. The case is a successor to the Master Control of the 2000s, which was large and blocky and felt a bit too big and a bit too massive to be elegant. In the early 2010s, Jaeger-LeCoultre started adopting elements from the Master Ultrathin series to make the standard Master Controls like this more elegant watches and smaller. You can see that the case is steel. We've got a very, very flat bezel that's almost completely flat. It's very narrowly conical. You can see a super shallow plane, soft bevel on the lugs, which are pointed and tapered. We have a case back that's slightly stepped in, so it looks thinner than it is when it's on your wrist. We have a lovely black dial with tri-Arabic numerals 6, 9, 12. We have faceted darts style applique indices. Thank goodness we've got a date wheel that's the same color as the dial. Not every brand gets that right. We've got a reasonable amount of lume to get you through the night. I should also mention that a lot of people think of the Sector Dial Masters that debuted, I want to say it was in 2017. Well, this is a more deluxe watch than those for a couple of reasons. The first is all applique dial features rather than printed features. And also this watch does feature the lume, which I appreciate. Now look at the dauphine style hour and minute hands from this angle. You could see that they're half frosted to make for better legibility. Hand legibility on a dark dial can always be a problem. And so Jaeger LeCoultre clearly thought of that. Now this was a general production model, but not made for long and not made in large numbers. I don't see a lot of them. There's also a prior generation Master Control with a black dial that was made for Cellini as a limited series. But I think that this is a more wearable watch than that one because that was the massive 2000s era Master Control. Now we've got a couple of subsidiary setting modes, one of which is hacking seconds. And then we've also got a quick set with instantaneous jump. And I'm going to demonstrate that the rollover of the date is also instantaneous jump. Just have to go all the way around to get there. This is something I always look for on a watch. Perfect. Rolling around caliber 899. So this is a change from the previous 889, and there are a few changes. You can see some you can't. The obvious change is that it's now a unidirectional winding system with ceramic bearings. Jaeger LeCoultre found that in practice in the real world, not on a winder, unidirectional winding was more efficient. That's combined here with ceramic bearings compared to the steel on the old bidirectional winding 889. Ceramic bearings and unidirectional winding being more efficient than steel and bidirectional respectively. We now have a free sprung balance for more precise adjustment by adjusting the pairs of variable inertia screws on the rim. It's both a more shock resistant system and one that makes for easier fine tuning. What you can't quite see is the reprofiled drive gears, which are called Spire profile. They were originally developed by a consortium of brands and Jaeger LeCoultre debuted them on the rarely seen 975 and 976 autotractor movements in the 2000s, but they were also brought over to these updated 899s. You can see a Kiff shock protection spring still used. Genuine fired blued screws. We have circular Cote de Genève on bridges and on the rotor. We have a 22 carat mass. This was before JLC started getting cheaper with its winding masses. Back before 2118 or tungsten, you got 22 for maximum efficiency. The most massive mass you'll see on standard watches. You also have a series of engine turned perlage executions overlapping on the base plate. We have both polished and blued screws. All of this with a four hertz beat rate and a 43 hour power reserve. One of the best simple watches you can buy. Utterly gorgeous from one of the best brands in the business and one of the longest lived. So if you love this watch, Jaeger LeCoultre, reach out to teamosso at the1916company.com for purchase and pricing details. And one last detail. Some people ask me about 50 meters. Is that swimmable? Well, if there's a screw down crown, I would say yes, but because this is a push down crown, I advise no. Now you have the whole story. Reach out teamosso at the1916company.com.