Jaeger-Lecoultre Presents The New North Chen Chronograph

Introduction: Jaeger-LeCoultre, in 2018, launched the North Chen series. At that time, it was the rise of the trend of sports watches, represented by the Rolex Green Ghost, the market began to go up. Jaeger-LeCoultre, which has always specialised in formal and complicated watches, also saw the opportunity and launched the North Chen, a sports watch series in the Jaeger-LeCoultre line-up, based on the historical Memovox dive watch of 1968.

Jaeger-LeCoultre launched the North Chen collection in 2018. At that time, it was during the rise of the sports watch trend, represented by the Rolex Green Ghost, the market began to go up. Jaeger-LeCoultre, which has always specialised in formal and complicated watches, also saw the opportunity and launched the North Chen, a sports watch series in the Jaeger-LeCoultre line-up, based on the historical Memovox dive watch from 1968.

In retrospect, Jaeger-LeCoultre was ‘conservative’ back then, and the 2018 version of the Peking is very dressy, especially since Jaeger-LeCoultre has fitted the Peking with a brown cowhide strap. As you can see from my old Peking Chronograph, it’s not too much of a stretch to call it a ‘dress watch’. The new North Chen Chronograph has swept away the conservatism and dullness of the old model, and in addition to Jaeger-LeCoultre’s usual luxury, a sense of sportiness and fashion have come.

The new North Chen Chronograph, including gradient grey disc, gradient blue disc two versions, the old North Chen Chronograph has been discontinued off the shelves. The new Peking Chronograph continues to use the complex ‘three-piece’ dial. The new version of the dial decoration, not only far more than the old model, but also better than most of the watch brands. It demonstrates Jaeger-LeCoultre’s high artistic standard.

The new Beichen chronograph, the inner circle of the disc surface has radial pattern decoration, the colour deepens from the centre to all around; the middle circle of the disc surface is decorated with particles, the same colour from light to dark; the outermost circle of the disc surface is the tachymeter circle, black glossy lacquer. Two gradation effects in one dial. The granular gradation effect on the centre ring in particular can also be seen on the new Patek Philippe 5226 and 5326. Two gradient effects with 35 layers of lacquer, all done by hand. Together with the orange accents on the dial, the effect is unmistakable. The effect of the dial is further amplified by the narrow bezel, and the raised sapphire crystal. It is no exaggeration to say that the dial complexity of the new Peking Chronograph not only meets, but even exceeds that of the Patek Philippe.

Above the ‘three-piece’ dial, the two chronograph counters stand out, and the small counters are also decorated with fine graining. A major change in the new Peking Chronograph is the small seconds at 9 o’clock, whereas the old Peking Chronograph had a 12-hour counter at 9 o’clock, and the old model did not have a small seconds hand. For a sports chronograph, the absence of a small second hand makes it inconvenient to tell at a glance whether the watch is running or not when the chronograph is not activated, and it is necessary to restore the small second hand. At the same time the hour and minute hands of the new Peking Chronograph are also added with skeletonisation. After the redesign of the North Chen Chronograph, the sense of sport and fashion, greatly improved.