With the perfection of the Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus during the 1950s (aka ‘SCUBA’), so came the need for tough, legible and seriously water-resistant watches that could be relied upon to let you know when your air was about to run out.
Rolex and Blancpain were among the first to make these essential pieces of operational equipment, launching watches around 1953 that were equipped with the high-contrast black dials and luminous markers that quickly became the dive watch norm.
But back in 1950, Jaeger-LeCoultre had developed a mechanical alarm model called the Memovox, which – 15 years later – was adapted with an ultra-water-resistant case and upgraded into the Memovox Polaris – a dive watch that not only gave a visual indication of when it was time to head back to the surface but an audible one, too.
This ingenious Polaris, which proved to be unfeasibly loud and effective when fully submerged, featured three crowns on the right side of its case – one to wind the watch and set the hands; one to re-charge the spring for the alarm, and the third to operate an internal, rotating bezel marked in graduations of 15-minutes.
Just 1,714 examples of the Memovox Polaris were made between 1965 and 1970, after which the model (and the name) disappeared from the Jaeger-LeCoultre catalogue for the best part of 40 years – until, in 2018, a new Polaris appeared.
Looking just like the old one, it caused high excitement among fans of vintage dive watches, and – in various guises – it has been a stalwart of the maker’s collection ever since.
Only now, however, has Jaeger-LeCoultre created a Polaris for the hardened traveller in the form of the new Geographic model, pictured.
Combining the looks of the legendary dive watch with the mechanism of an existing time-zone model, the Polaris Geographic offers 100 metres of water resistance with a power reserve indicator and, best of all, an easy-to-use dual-time system.
A secondary crown at the 10 o’clock position operates a disc under the dial that’s marked with the world’s major cities along with indications for those which use daylight saving time.
It’s a simple matter of turning the crown until the city of choice appears in the window beneath the orange-coloured arrow at six o’clock, at which point the subdial above it will show the correct time in that location, while the main hands continue to show local time.
Another, tiny subdial to the left of the secondary one, meanwhile, indicates whether it’s day or night in the chosen city.
Simple, but brilliant.
The only thing missing is the alarm function – but if you’re travelling for fun, you might want to wake-up naturally anyway.
The Jaeger-LeCoultre Polaris Geographic costs £14,800 and is supplied with one strap in black rubber and another in blue canvas; jaeger-lecoultre.com
Simon de Burton is a journalist and author who writes for the FT’s How to Spend It, British GQ and Boat International, among other publications
