WE WANTED TO
HAVE A SPORTS
WATCH AT LEAST AT
THE SAME PRICE TO
A CLASSIC WATCH
WITH COMPARABLE
FUNCTIONS.
Jaeger-lecoultre Polaris Date
With its large opening, you can see that its design is totally different from
traditional diving watches. Aesthetically it stands out from other diving watches.
You have a lot of space on the dial, so if you want to integrate new functions as
we did have the space.
There was also a domed crystal providing certain elegance. We re-created
this in the new collection. It gives a maximum opening to the dial, and the bezel
remains very thin. Collectors have been searching for this watch for the past
fifteen years. At the beginning of the 2000s, it used to sell for $1,000-$1,500,
and today it is hard to find one in good condition below $30,000 or $40,000.
This is from collectors, who have acclaimed the watch. That is also why we
decided to use this watch. And there is some rarity involved, with roughly 1,200
made, and there were many different styles. There were dials that were more
classic with metallic indexes. In the late 1960s there were dials with luminescence
materials. Around 1968 we produced about 800 of those.
For import it was Jaeger-LeCoultre and for export it was LeCoultre, made for
the American market (Memovox models for the American market were printed
and engraved with LeCoultre instead of Jaeger-LeCoultre until 1980). We
reprised this with our 40th anniversary version in 2008.
What elements of that original Polaris did you
want to be sure were included in this re-edition?
We had long discussions about which elements to keep, about which ele-
ments to improve. The layout of the dial was very important because in the
original it is designed around the functions. The disc of the Memovox is in
the center, surrounded by the figures, and then the internal rotating bezel.
You have three surfaces. And they were each finished with a different
type of finish so that even with the same color you would have different
reflections. There may be different tones of black, for example, and that
is what we wanted to keep with this re-edition–one color with different
finishes on the dial.
Plus, Jaeger-LeCoultre typically has four Arabic numbers, and we wanted to
also keep that, as well as the trapezoidal indexes. So we used metallic indexes
and metallic numbers– not just printed. And those metallic elements are filled
with the luminous substance. This means the finishing is at the high level
you would expect. So we have the same design, but expressed with higher
level of finishing than in the past.
FALL 2018 | INTERNATIONAL WATCH | 77