Jaeger-LeCoultre
Memovox (1950)Founded by Antoine LeCoultre in 1833, LeCoultre was a manufacturer of watches and clocks in Le Sentier, Switzerland. In the early 1900s, LeCoultre produced most of the movement blanks for Patek Philippe. Together with Paris-based watchmaker Jaeger S.A., LeCoultre exclusively produced the movements for French jeweler Cartier for a period of fifteen years. The collaboration between Jaeger and LeCoultre intensified with the creation of the iconic Reverso watch, which led to the company being officially renamed Jaeger-LeCoultre in 1937.
The Jaeger-LeCoultre Memovox (a port-manteau of ‘memoria’ and ‘vox’) was the first automatic wristwatch featuring an audible alarm. Launched in 1950, the first Memovox was hand wound and equipped with the Calibre 489. It had to compete with the Vulcain Cricket, which was released a year earlier. In 1956, Jaeger-LeCoultre released the iconic Memovox with the Calibre 815 – the first self-winding alarm watch in history.
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