Jaeger-LeCoultre introduces the Polaris collection
The Jaeger-LeCoultre Polaris Mariner presents two new models that unite fully ISO 6425-compliant specifications: the Jaeger-LeCoultre Polaris Mariner Memovox and the Jaeger-LeCoultre Polaris Mariner Date. Benedict Cumberbatch has this to say about the two watches:
You were diving with the new Polaris Mariner Memovox: what features and functions do you like the most and find to be the most impressive?
[One feature is] the safety gauge on the central bevel that means you cannot overestimate the time [left in a dive]; you can only underestimate the time should the worse happen and it comes loose — in my hands it’s pretty difficult to make that happen but you can touch against things or hit it on a diving belt — but it’s preventable in terms of giving you a false sense of security as to how much time you have in a scuba dive.
It has the latest illumination on the hands, so you can see very clearly where the second, minute and hour hands are, so it’s very easy to navigate when you’re deep in the dark of the water when you’re diving.
It’s light, it’s incredibly durable and I love the feature where it’s designed such that you can see the mechanism at the back. It’s the geek in me — I love to see the organic mechanisms that they manage to produce in these watches. Although it obviously doesn’t have a tourbillon, it’s still a mightily impressive bit of engineering and it’s incredibly sleek for a diving watch. It doesn’t feel overbearing on a wrist if you’re wearing it casually as well as for its purpose: diving. It’s a beautiful object, a classic look, timeless.
What are some specific details that you admire about the new Polaris Mariner?
I think it’s a very elegant timepiece; with the classic link chain, it’s not overstated as a dive watch. It is slight for a diving watch, which I really like, and it’s a very stylish thing — I can just wear it at home with a jumper as well as with a wetsuit. The watch face is easy to read under water in the dark, thanks to its high luminosity hands and the differentiation between the size and shapes of the hands.
One of the most important things about a diving watch is obviously its safety and how secure it is to rely on at depth. It functions at a 300-metre depth — well beyond most recreational and commercial dives. It has a lock on the central crown — on the bezel so that if by accident it did come out or it did get knocked — anything can happen on a dive — it will only give you the impression that you have less air rather than more. So, you’ll surface with air to spare rather than the other way around. And it’s a beautiful, classic timepiece. I like that you can actually see the mechanism at
the back through the glass — which is quite rare in a dive watch and it must have taken a lot of effort to have something
that is resistant to that much pressure and that much depth still visible with the transparent face on that back.