Lot 23, a Jaeger-LeCoultre Diamond Wristwatch, features the watchmaker’s legendary Calibre 101 movement. After nearly a century since its 1929 launch, the Calibre 101 is still the world’s smallest mechanical movement and exemplifies Jaeger-LeCoultre’s legacy of technical excellence in horology. The unique size and shape of the movement enable master watchmakers to marry their technical expertise with a jeweler’s elegance, allowing greater creative freedom than ever seen before in jewelry watches. Unrestrained by traditional movements’ cumbersome sizing, jewelers can conceal the Calibre 101 within delicate bracelets, bands, and even rings as watches made to disappear into their cases’ forms.

The exceptionally small size of the movement was of great interest to the growing style of discrete ladies’ jewelry watches over the 20^th century. A most notable example of its popularity is the petite diamond and white gold Calibre 101 worn by Queen Elizabeth II during her coronation in 1953, easily mistaken by viewers as an elegant diamond bracelet. Containing a movement with its origin in the 1920s, a wristwatch circa dated to the 1950s, and a modern stylistic appeal for the present day, the timelessness of Lot 23 is undeniable.