Today, I’m gonna talk about my little adventure trying to make a knock-off Jaeger-LeCoultre JLC Duomètre à Quantième Lunaire watch. I’ve always been a fan of those fancy watches, but, let’s be real, they’re way out of my budget. So, I thought, why not try to make one myself? It seemed like a fun project, and I was curious to see if I could actually pull it off.
First off, I started by looking at the real deal – the actual Jaeger-LeCoultre Duomètre à Quantième Lunaire. Man, that thing is a beauty! I spent hours just staring at pictures and reading about all its fancy features. I learned that it has this “Dual-Wing” concept, which basically means it has two separate mechanisms inside: one for keeping time and another for the extra stuff, like the moon phase display. This setup is supposed to make the watch super accurate.
After I felt like I had a decent understanding of what made this watch tick (pun intended), I started thinking about how I could replicate it. Obviously, I wasn’t going to make a perfect copy – I don’t have the skills or the tools for that. But I figured I could maybe make something that looked similar and had some of the same functions.
I started by taking apart some old watches I had lying around. I wanted to see how they worked and maybe salvage some parts I could use. I also looked online to see if I could find any cheap watch movements that I could use as a base. I found a few quartz movements, but then I remembered that real Jaeger-LeCoultre watches use mechanical movements, not quartz. That was a bit of a setback, but I kept searching.
Then I tried to find out about the serial number. I learned that the serial number is located on the movement of each watch, either on the back or under the dial. The year of production of the case may be 1-2 years behind the year of production of the movement, since the assembly could have been put together later from the stock of finished movements.
Eventually, I found a cheap mechanical movement online that seemed like it might work. It wasn’t anything fancy, but it had the basic functions I needed. I also found some watch hands and a dial that looked kind of like the ones on the Duomètre à Quantième Lunaire. It wasn’t an exact match, but it was close enough for my purposes.
The next step was putting everything together. This was definitely the hardest part. I had to figure out how to attach the hands to the movement, how to fit the movement inside a watch case, and how to make the moon phase display work. It involved a lot of trial and error, and I definitely made some mistakes along the way. I even broke a few parts and had to order replacements.
But after a lot of tinkering and a lot of patience, I finally had something that resembled a watch. It wasn’t perfect, of course. The moon phase display was a bit janky, and the overall quality was nowhere near that of a real Jaeger-LeCoultre. But, you know what? I was pretty proud of it. I had taken a bunch of random parts and turned them into something that actually told the time (and kind of showed the moon phase).
I wore my homemade “Duomètre à Quantième Lunaire” for a few days, just to see how it held up. It kept time surprisingly well, although I did have to wind it every day. One time, I even showed it to a friend who knows a bit about watches. He took a look at it, opened the case, and said it definitely wasn’t a real Jaeger-LeCoultre movement. But he was still impressed that I had managed to put it together myself.
So, yeah, that’s the story of my attempt to make an imitation Jaeger-LeCoultre JLC Duomètre à Quantième Lunaire. It was a fun and challenging project, and I learned a lot about watches along the way. Would I do it again? Maybe. It was definitely a lot of work, but it was also pretty rewarding. Plus, now I have a unique watch that, while not exactly a masterpiece, is definitely a conversation starter.
Oh, I found that the Duometre mechanism features two barrels and two independent gear trains: one for timekeeping and one for complications – linked to a single escapement. By separating the power supply in this way, the Duom�tre mechanism guarantees an exceptionally high degree of operating accuracy. I think this is the core of this watch.
All in all, it is very interesting to have such an experience. I won’t do this again.
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