Jaeger-LeCoultre Amvox2 DB9 Transponder: “Keyless Entry” to an Exclusive Club
- The Jaeger-LeCoultre Amvox2 DB9 Transponder remotely unlocks your Aston Martin.
- This exclusive model was available only to buyers of the Aston Martin DB9 supercar.
- A vertical trigger chronograph, it operates without pushers; just press the dial.
- Can be reprogrammed to work with any Aston Martin DBS or DB9.
- available from watchuwant.com for almost 20% off MSRP of $29,500.
The Jaeger-LeCoultre Amvox2 DB9 Transponder is unlike any other luxury watch. While it’s been said that a sharp timepiece can part ropes and open doors, this Amvox2 takes the notion rather… literally.
In the DB9 Transponder, Jaeger-LeCoultre offers supercar owners the world’s first keyless entry device to be integrated within a luxury watch.
With black-tie style and the ability to unlock a lucky owner’s Aston Martin DB9, wearing this Amvox2 practically turns you into James Bond. Check that: Bond gets saddled with an endless procession of Omega and Rolex product placement, so the Amvox2 DB9 is a cut above Q-Branch standard-issue. Hey James, wanna trade up?
Each Amvox2 DB9 Transponder begins life mated to an Aston Martin automobile. Given the emphasis on exclusivity, Jaeger-LeCoultre and Aston agreed in advance that access to this model would be constrained to current owners of a compatible vehicle. In other words, the watch was a $29,500 option on top of the $183,700 DB9 supercar.
And unless you’re reading this in Dubai, you just don’t see those every day.
It has been speculated by JLC collectors that fewer than 100 of the transponders were built during the original run of the 2006-2010 Amvox2 series. Considering that Jaeger-LeCoultre built less than 4,000 examples of all Amvox2 chronographs combined, this is rarefied air indeed.
When the Jaeger-LeCoutlre Amvox2 debuted in 2006, it became the first pusherless chronograph with a “vertical trigger” case. That is, the case of the watch pivots from top to bottom on ball bearings, and a tap at 12 o’clock serves to start or stop the mechanism; a tap at 6 o’clock resets the indicators.
The Amvox2 DB9 Transponder adapts this intuitive (and driving glove-friendly) system by adding touch points at four o’clock and eight o’clock to lock and unlock, respectively, the doors of an owner’s Aston Martin DB9. Additionally, the DB9 Transponder features a special “find me” function that enables an owner to flash the lights of his car for rapid nighttime location in a crowded lot.
Once again, if you’re reading this in Dubai, the “find me” feature may serve a useful daytime function during the lunch rush at the local Pizza Hut. Because there’s nothing more awkward than trying to open the door of someone else’s chrome-plated hypercar while toting Stuffed Crust.
Given the offbeat marriage of integrated electronics with traditional Swiss mechanical watchmaking, it’s natural to ask whether the Amvox2 DB9 Transponder offers the longevity and resistance to obsolescence that are central to a luxury watch’s appeal. And on that front, Aston Martin and Jaeger-LeCoultre have good news. Each Amvox2 DB9 Transponder can be reconfigured to pair with DB9 automobiles other than the one with which the watch originally was delivered.
Aston Martin’s dealers perform the vehicle-specific encoding of the Transponder, and Jaeger-LeCoultre services the battery, circuitry, and case internals. Recall that each of these companies maintains parts for products dating back to their original union (via dashboard instruments) in the 1920s, and it becomes clear that the Jaeger-LeCoultre Amvox2 Transponder series will be supported for the long road ahead.
And that shared history is essential to understanding the logic of the Jaeger-LeCoultre Amvox family of luxury watches.
While the Amvox luxury watch series has endured and thrived since its 2004 introduction, the technical relationship between the two firms dates back to the inter-war era, when Aston Martin road and race cars first came to bear the “Jaeger” trademark on their speedometers and tachometers.
Since that seminal moment, tens of thousands of Britain’s finest performance cars have emerged from Aston’s Newport Pagnell and Gaydon factories bearing a piece of Swiss engineering in the most prominent location. Jaeger gauges have graced the dashboards of Aston Martin drivers James Bond, the Prince of Wales, and the Aston Martin DBR1 driven to victory by Carroll Shelby in the 1959 24 Hours of LeMans.
In other words, the Aston-JLC links run far, far, deeper than a marketing agency’s whim.
Above all, the DB9 Transponder is a Jaeger-LeCoultre Amvox2 chronograph, and that’s kind of a big deal.
Among the Amvox series of watches, the Amvox2 enjoys an enthusiast following bordering on cult status. Since the first 2005 “sneak peak” press photos, the Amvox2 has been called a “concept watch” come to life.
Just as automakers like Aston Martin tease future products with concept cars, watchmakers often do the same with flamboyant and fanciful one-off builds for the annual watch industry trade shows. Regrettably, and in common with their automotive counterparts, very few of these fantasy watches reach the consumer market in their show-stopping original forms.
The Amvox2 bucked the trend. Its signature innovation – the vertical trigger chronograph – is a tech marvel that continues to astound even longtime owners. The idea alone is intriguing, but the fact that such a device actually works on the wrist is a testament to the watchmaking chops in Le Sentier.
Jaeger-LeCoultre‘s engineering team sweated the details to make the Amvox2 as practical and functional a chronograph as any conventional rival, and they produced a system that pivots on ball bearings, actuates via a crisp column wheel, and engages with the seamless fluency of a vertical clutch. From a tech standpoint, even Patek Philippe’s chronographs can do no better. In terms of sheer imagination, the Jaeger-LeCoultre Amvox2 remains a class of one.
Beauty is central to the appeal of luxury watches and luxury automobiles, and the Amvox2 DB9 Transponder does justice to its road-going namesake. A complex 44mm titanium case features gorgeous finishing details that alternate between fluid lines, hard creases, brushed finish, and bright polish. The watch electrifies in shifting light, and its diverse surfaces never yield a static moment.
As dynamic as a sports car, the Amvox2’s grade-five titanium shell is a “case” study in light management. It gleams, glitters, and dazzles.
A watch design can survive but not thrive by case design alone, and Jaeger-LeCoultre was careful to match the Amvox2‘s figure with a handsome face. Each iteration of the Amvox2 featured an evolving rendition of the “speedometer” theme debuted on the original Amvox1 of 2004.
But the DB9 Transponder was the highlight of the series.
Light and dark make a powerful tandem, and Jaeger-LeCoultre uses it to great effect on this watch.
Extensive use of polished and brushed metal reinforces the machine aesthetic and provides dramatic contrast with the dark segments. Alternating use of polished chapter rings, engine-turned base metal surfaces, and extensive skeleton treatment enhances the traditional Amvox2 “layered dial” effect while revealing the underlying mechanism.
Like a glance under the hood of a high-performance car, an opportunity to ponder the dial of the Jaeger-LeCoultre Amvox2 DB9 Transponder reveals just enough of the machine to entice the eye and excite the imagination. At six o’clock, the chronograph hammers can be viewed on their bearing pivots; at center, the shock protection of the escape wheel and meshing of secondary train wheels are revealed.
This is a watch for those who love machines and relish beauty.
watchuwant.com is proud to offer this Amvox2 DB9 Transponder with full factory packaging, manuals, documentation, and Aston Martin-themed limited edition accessories.
Any Jaeger-LeCoultre Amvox2 chronograph is a prize for those who love cars and luxury watches. But only the DB9 can be considered the Grand Prize among Amvox2 limited editions.
The Amvox2 DB9 Transponder is the ultimate collector’s item for fans and owners of Aston Martin cars. As a standalone watch, this chronograph boasts the presence, refinement, and charisma to succeed without any reference to its namesake automobiles. Indeed, the DB9 Transponder verges on overshadowing the car itself.
Perhaps we should consider this Amvox2 DB9 Transponder as a luxury watch with a $187,500 automotive accessory option…
