Jaeger-LeCoultre Polaris Chronograph Watch Review
The Jaeger-LeCoultre Polaris Chronograph has received a makeover for 2023. It’s offered in two dial variants, both enriched with a glorious lacquered finish. The models are also fitted with a sublime integrated chronograph movement, the Calibre 761. The historic Manufacture in Le Sentier has produced an exceptional watch deserving of attention. Mark McArthur-Christie, a man who longs for an original 1968 JLC Polaris, looks closely at this latest timepiece.
Jaeger-LeCoultre Polaris (1968)
I spent nearly twenty years in advertising. In that time, I worked on everything from car accounts (I still smile when I remember ragging the then new Mi16 Peugeot 405 around Millbrook) to pub brands. The joke is that working in advertising means, eventually, ending up with no soul, having frittered it away on countless compromises, deals and plain old fibs. It’s a shame, as that means I probably don’t have enough left to trade for an original 1968 JLC Polaris. It’s up there on my list with a mint Bristol 410 (black with mushroom leather, please, if anyone’s buying) and a maisonette on the 23rd/24th floors of Trellick Tower. Those views…
Jaeger-LeCoultre Polaris Chronograph (2018)
Jaeger-LeCoultre isn’t a firm given to taking rash changes of direction. Even though it’s a three-hander, it’s easy to see where the original 1968 watch has influenced the 2018 chronograph. It’s even easier to see the similarities between this new model and its 2018 older sibling. In fact, a quick glance and you’ll be pushed to tell the differences, but they’re there all the same.
Jaeger-LeCoultre Polaris Chronograph (2023) – dial
If you’re sharp, you’ll get the orange tachymeter dots with an orange 60 on the scale at 12 o’clock, the orange tip to the central chrono seconds, the running seconds subdial and skeleton hands. If you’re even sharper and you know your JLCs, you’ll spot that the dial has more visual depth than the earlier watches do.
Like the original watch (that used an internal rotating bezel as well as an inner disc that turned to indicate alarm time), you’ll see that the Polaris’ dial has three different areas. There’s a flat inner plane that bisects the chrono subdials, then a textured middle ring, carrying the batons and signature large number markers, and finally a smooth tachymetre outer ring. The new dial is also the beneficiary of an impressive lacquering process.
There’s a new dial colour on offer (a warm grey) and both the grey and the more trad JLC blue are the result of a new dial finish for the Polaris. You can see that on both the central disc and the hour track, the lacquer moves from light to dark as you move towards the inner edge of each ring. It’s not the easiest of processes. First, you apply a clear coat of varnish. That in itself presents a whole host of problems – not least the need for the dial to be completely free from dust and imperfections; the clear coat would magnify them splendidly. Far from ideal. Then, the dialmaker adds a layer of colour. Getting the shade and gradient is another challenge. If the sections don’t match visually, the dial goes in the skip. Finally, you’ll need to add 35 coats of translucent lacquer before you polish everything to a bright mirror finish. With 35 coats on each dial – imagine just how thin each coat is, how carefully it needs to be laid down and how much potential there is for getting it wrong. We’re guessing the JLC dialmakers enjoy a very decent summer barbeque on the strength of the swear jar contributions alone.
As well as a new dial finish, there’s the new chrono functionality. Where the earlier Polaris models (‘Polarises’ is ugly and it looks like ‘Polari’ is already taken, thank you Julian and Sandy) dual registers looked after the 30-minute and 12-hour totalisers with a central chrono seconds, the new watch adds a running seconds at 9 o’clock but retains the 30 minute totaliser and chrono seconds. Even better, there’s no date window cluttering things up and making the dial untidy. The backgrounds of the subdials are in contrast to the stippled graining of the hour track. They are circular-grained, making them stand out well against the high gloss of the lacquered surfaces and the opaline finish of the outer ring.
Jaeger-LeCoultre has thought about readability when it comes to using the chronograph practically. That orange tip to the chrono second hand makes it stand out clearly against either dial colour. The time’s easy too, because of the skeleton hour and minute hands. It should be just as simple to read at night too, as the indices, numerals and the tips of the hands are all luminous. It’s not Seiko levels of ‘wake hibernating animals’ brightness, but plenty clear enough to see in pretty much any light condition – handy for a sports watch.
Jaeger-LeCoultre Polaris Chronograph (2023) – case
The new watch carries over the 41 mm diameter from its 2018 predecessor, although it’s been indulging in a little more shoreside snackery as the width is up to just short of 13.4 mm. Hardly a bloater, mind, but the earlier model was just under 12 mm. The 100 metre water-resist case is stainless, as you’d expect, with curving lugs, a glass-box crystal and a mix of brushed and polished surfaces. The large crown is carried over too and the pushers retain their robustness. The little gadroon around their face adds a bit of aesthetic charm at the same time as making your finger less likely to slip off them – not that doing so has ever been a huge issue.
Jaeger-LeCoultre Polaris Chronograph (2023) – Calibre 761
That slightly chubbier case is down to another change that you won’t spot that easily. The Calibre 751, itself based on the F. Piguet cal. 1185, has now been set aside in favour of the newer Calibre 761. I’m not sure if new movement carries over the pawl-and-ratchet self-winding mechanism, but I suspect it does.
The new movement retains the 751’s twin barrels to give a chunky 65 hours of running from a fully-powered pair of mainsprings. The Calibre 761 runs two fewer jewels (35 against 37) than its predecessor (no gearing needed for a 12 hour counter) and continues with the column-wheel chronograph mechanism and vertical clutch, so the pushers should snick crisply and the chrono seconds won’t wobble about before it finds its beat. It’s an integrated chronograph, so all the bits and bobs that make the chrono work are part of the movement, rather than being installed as an add-on module.
Decoration-wise, you get JLC’s typically obsessive fine finishing with blued screws and Côtes de Genève decoration on the baseplate as well as on the signature open-worked winding rotor with the ‘JL’ motif. Everything was designed, produced, finished and assembled at JLC’s own Manufacture in Le Sentier, located in Switzerland’s Vallée de Joux.
Jaeger-LeCoultre Polaris Chronograph (2023) – straps and spring bars
Now, despite all this chronographic loveliness and heritage, there is a small, quick-release fly in the ointment. In my view, quick-release spring bars are an invention of the devil. Far too easy to catch them on the thread of a jumper or a coat cuff and loosen the strap, perhaps even losing the watch in the process. However, JLC is now offering them on this new Polaris. This presents me with a dilemma; I can’t imagine they’d do this lightly and without extensive testing, so perhaps QR spring bars of this flavour are safe and I need to reconsider my former stance. No matter – with the blue dialled model you get a steel bracelet and a rubber strap whereas the grey dialled watch arrives with a fetching beige canvas strap and a rubber strap too. It’s the work of a moment to replace the Devil’s Own spring bars with proper ones on the rubber or canvas straps. Both come with an interchangeable folding buckle.
Jaeger-LeCoultre Polaris Chronograph (2023) – closing thoughts
Jaeger-LeCoultre, despite being happy pushing movement technology forward, tends not to be much of a design revolutionary. That’s the case with these two new chronographs. Despite all their extra timing tech, you could sit them next to an original 1968 and their 2018 elder brother and have no problem establishing their parentage. Yes, in an ideal world, one would perhaps take the 1968 Polaris. But, realistically, how often could you wear something that valuable, that rare and that irreplaceable? The 2018 watches are glorious and far more practical. But the new movement, the visual interest from the new dial finishes and the tweaks to hand design and colouring edges it. And at £13,500, or £14,000 depending on the model, perhaps what’s left of my immortal soul is safe for now.
Further reading
https://www.jaeger-lecoultre.com/
Technical specification
- Model: Jaeger-LeCoultre Polaris Chronograph
- Reference: Q9028181 (blue dial)
- Reference: Q9028181 (grey dial)
- Case: steel, diameter 42 mm, height 13.39 mm, water resistance 10 ATM (100 m), sapphire crystal to front and exhibition caseback
- Functions: Hours, minutes, small seconds, chronograph with 30-minute counter, central seconds indication and tachymeter
- Movement: Calibre 761, automatic movement, 35 jewels, power reserve 65 hours
- Strap: blue dial – steel bracelet and additional rubber strap supplied with an interchangeable folding buckle
- Strap: grey dial – beige canvas and additional rubber strap supplied with an interchangeable folding buckle
- Price: blue dial, steel/rubber strap, £14,000 (RRP as of 31.8.2023)
- Price: grey dial, beige canvas/rubber strap, £13,500 (RRP as of 31.8.2023)