Lecoultre Master Mariner

By ICONEEK January 16, 2023

LECOULTRE, MASTER MARINER, DEEP SEA, AUTOMATIC, « BARRACUDA », REF. E558

ICONEEK price: SOLD

Iconeek is proud to introduce here a superb and rare LeCoultre, made for the US market, the Barracuda. According to scholars, the model was produced from 1967 to 1974 in a very short production run of only 1532 pieces.

Under Ref. E558, The model is a professional diving’s wristwatch, waterproof to 400ft, with inside turning bezel for decompression time. The model is cased in stainless steel and comes with a calendar, with instantaneous date change, and a direct center second. Inside ticks a caliber 883, mechanical, self-winding, rhodium-plated, with 17 jewels, straight line lever escapement, shock absorbers, beating at 19’800 vibrations/h, antimagnetic, with direct center second. Under the organic glass, the matte black dial is set with painted tritium hour-markers, luminous steel Baton hands, an aperture for the rimmed date at 3, a sweep center second. The dial is signed « LeCoultre Automatic » on top and « T swiss T » at his bottom.

Thanks to its patented Super Compressor system case, the model was water-resistant to 120 m (400 ft). The inner rotating bezel is bearing the decompression time, an useful fonction for divers. The model has a two-body construction: a large stainless steel polished and brushed tonneau-shaped case with two hatched crown, one at 2 for decompression ring, one at 4 to set time, a screwed case back and brushed lapidated bezel. The case back is engraved inside “Super Compressor – Brevet – 317537 – 337462 – LeCoultre Co – Swiss – LeCoultre & Co, Acier Inoxydable – E 558, 5-70. » and is engraved with the diver-helmet logo. The size between the lugs is 20 mm. The present watch comes with a brown leather strap.

The same model, signed Jaeger-LeCoultre, for the European market (Patrimoine Jaeger-LeCoultre, inv 352) is described and illustrated in One, Yearbook 2008, by JLC, pages 70 & 71.

Super Compressor, Super Collector !

Condition: 9.5/10, in almost new old stock condition, a great addition to any diver’s collection!