Jaeger-LeCoultre

rdenney
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Here are a few data points...

...from past for-sale listings by Zaf Basha:



He believes the dial to have been refinished perfectly. The movement also dates to 1945. The seconds hand is the same shape as mine, though gold, but the minutes and hours hands have the same dauphine shape.

Here's another one:



He believes this dial was also a refinish, but the numerals are closer to the style of your 1945 catalog (though the hands are still the dauphine style). The movement in this one also dates to 1945.

Here's one with a 1946 movement:



The dial is repainted poorly with a dreadful logo, and the seconds hand looks to have been trimmed. But a repaint doesn't replace raised numerals. This had a P450 movement but the lugs are a semi-teardrop design. Is this a 2953? I've seen several examples in teardrop cases, but your 1945 catalog suggests these might be a different reference. Certainly we don't see the long hands or the dot minute markers as on the Swedish example from over a decade later.

Here's a similar dial in original condition, with raised numerals. But the date is unknown (to me):



Given the lack of correlation between date and style, my suspicion is that the watches were made in batches, and each batch reflected a little different set of details.

All of these were discussed in Zaf's forum (and I hope referencing them here doesn't break any unwritten rule), so you all have probably seen them.

As I mentioned before, I've seen similarly designed watches with outer minute tracks that used a caliber 820 in a 33mm case. Do we know the size and caliber of those Swedish watches? Maybe they thought 35.5mm was too big for a watch by the late 50's, and shrank the reference 2953.

Rick "curious" Denney

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