Jaeger LeCoultre has just announced one of the thinnest, if not the thinnest, mechanical wristwatches ever made: the Master Ultra Thin Squelette. The replica watches in this family of timepieces are built around the well known ultra thin Jaeger LeCoultre caliber 849, known in this iteration as the 849SQ (squelette, or skeleton) and the movement itself remains 1.85 mm thick. The big news is however that the fake watch itself, overall, is only 3.6 mm thick, in the thinnest version.
Several sharp eyed readers picked up on this when the press release went out, although Jaeger LeCoultre is sedulously avoiding making any world-record claims ?however for comparison, we note that the Piaget Ultra-Thin 900P is overall 3.65 mm in height, the Jaeger LeCoultre Master Ultra-Thin Jubilee (2014) is 4.05 mm in height, and the Vacheron Constantin Les Historiques 1955 is 4.13 mm in height (it is worth noting that the latter uses the VC caliber 1003, which is 1.64 mm thick as opposed to 1.85 mm thick for the JLC 849SQ).
There are a total of four references in the new collection ?two grand feu enamel decorated models, in white or pink gold, and two gem set models, both in 38 mm ?the gem-set models are slightly taller, at 4.7 mm. The construction of the fake watch is worth a closer look; we haven't seen one in person (yet) but the movement looks almost as if it's on the same plane, or almost on the same plane, as the dial; the movement looks to be basically held in place by the dial rather than encased in the conventional sense.
If you're really wondering about records, it's probably worth remembering that the difference between the Piaget 900P (by the numbers) and the JLC MUT SQ (by the numbers) is a whopping 0.05 mm. That is 50 microns, folks ?the smallest human red blood cells are about 5 microns, so imagine 10 of those laid side by side and you'll have a sense of the actual size difference (in other words, probably undetectable, although maybe not ?there's a study that suggests the human finger can feel nanometer level ridges, if you want to go down that rabbit hole).
Regardless, we're looking forward to seeing this fake watch in person in the months ahead, and in the meantime, the world of fake watch lovers in general, and those following the ultra-thin fake watch wars in particular, have a new and pretty darned gorgeous contender cantering in the lists.
Master UT 1907 SQ pink gold, gem-Set $72,500
Master UT 1907 SQ pink gold, $58,500
Master UT 1907 SQ white gold, gem-set, $75,000
Master UT 1907 SQ white gold, $61,000
View all the models here
Jaeger-lecoultre Jaeger LeCoultre Grande Reverso Ultra Thin Replica watch Hands On 9215