Jaeger-LeCoultre Shark/Vogue

When you're a Shark you're a Shark - unless you're a Vogue! The stunning chronograph you're looking at was once known by both names, depending on from whence you hailed. For the fashion-forward European market, it carried the Vogue name, and for us New World savages, the Shark.  Always referred to internally as the Reference E.2643, the Shark/Vogue was a limited production piece released by Jaeger-LeCoultre in the late 1960s as a response to the increasingly demanding sport chronograph market. Despite the prestigious name, the E.2643 saw limited commercial success at the time, ultimately bowing out after only a few years of production as the market was secured by the likes of Omega, Heuer, and Rolex. Sharing a number of key features with both Heuer and Rolex, the Shark/Vogue is a rare find today, and we were thrilled when it came through the door. Sized at 40mm, the watch uses an Autavia 2446-styled case with thick beveled lugs and a rotating timing bezel, but unlike its Heuer cousin features a screw-down case back. A reverse-Panda dial with triple subsidiary register layout evokes Autavias and Daytonas of the era, featuring registers for 30-minute and 12-hour counters along with sweeping subsidiary seconds. But with a fancy scripted logo and inner base-1000 tachymetre ring, the dial is distinctively LeCoultre. Powering this timepiece is the Calibre 72 manually-winding chronograph movement by Valjoux, a movement as robust as it is iconic. To say we've been hunting one of these for some time would be a bit of an understatement, and we are truly thrilled to offer this beautiful example just in time for the holidays. With an incredibly clean dial, light patina, crisp case, and beautifully ghosted 60-minute bezel, this rare chronograph is sure to make someone very, very happy!