One of the Best Dive Watches Is Now the Perfect Vacation Watch

JLC adds its clever Geographic travel-time complication to the Polaris diver.

Published May 21, 2024

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Updated May 21, 2024

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There are a few criteria I consider when looking for the ideal travel watch. First of all, it needs to be versatile in its styling without being unnecessarily flashy and drawing unwanted attention — it should be suitably sporty for casual wear but nice enough for wearing out to dinner. It needs to be sufficiently water-resistant for holiday activities like swimming. Finally, any travel watch worth its salt should be able to give you both the local time and your home time at a glance.

Jaeger-LeCoultre has just launched a new version of its Polaris sports watch with its signature Geographic world time complication sports watch. The Polaris Geographic easily meets all of the travel watch criteria I laid out above, and if I had $16,100 sitting in my watch fund, it’d probably be my next vacation watch. Here’s what I love about it.

Jaeger-LeCoultre Polaris Geographic

$16,100 at Jaeger-LeCoultre

A Clever Travel-Time Function

Different brands incorporate travel-time complications in different ways. Many go the classic Rolex GMT route, which shows a second time zone via a fourth hand that displays a second time zone in a 24-hour format. Others, like Patek Philippe, opt for a 12-hour fourth hand paired with a day-night indicator. Then there are world timers, which seek to put 24 time zones at once on your wrist at once with their busy city-filled displays but which are only accurate half the year due to Daylight Saving Time and similar systems around the world.

JLC’s Geographic complication is sort of a mix of all three, but it is executed in such a subtle and elegant manner that it remains unobtrusive.

jlc watch dial close-up — See those little suns next to Rio de Janeiro, Azores, London and Paris? That tells you those cities observe Summer Time.

The way it works is this: A second clockface at six o’clock displays a second time zone, both the hours and minutes. It’s accented by a small day-night indicator to its left and an orange triangle directly below it that points to a cutout on the dial displaying the cities of the world in a world-time disc. You set this city using the crown at 10 o’clock, and clever little sun logos appear next to the cities that observe DST or Summer Time. Brilliant.

Vacation-Ready

JLC first revived the 1960s-era Polaris dive watch back in 2018 with a line of dual-crown divers, sporty chronographs and — like the ’60s original Memovex Polaris — a diver with a mechanical alarm. The brand has since expanded the line with perpetual calendar and precious metal models, but the new Geographic may be the most compelling.

actor Nicholas Hoult poses on a boat wearing a jlc watch — The Polaris Geographic’s campaign stars JLC ambassador Nicholas Hoult, with the actor seen here putting out glamorous vacation vibes while showing off the watch on a Riva-esque runabout.

In addition to the killer travel-time function, the Polaris Geographic boasts the same retro-modern styling as the rest of the Polaris line and the intricate multi-layered dial that’s become a signature of the line. The watch boasts a water resistance of 100m, so easily enough to handle any aquatic activities, and comes on a fitted black rubber strap that’s both sporty and sleek (and obviously plays well with water). And while the watch is certainly beautiful and expensive, it lacks the recognizability of sports watch models from Rolex, Patek and AP, meaning it should draw less unwanted attention from sticky-fingered watch flippers.

Is the Polaris Geographic perfect? Well, I haven’t seen it in the metal, but I’m still going to say no, as no watch is perfect. I’d like to see it a little smaller, as 42mm is a bit large for my personal tastes. And I could do without the power reserve display on the dial. Since the watch’s Calibre 939 movement is an automatic with 70 hours of power reserve, the indicator is basically moot and adds unnecessary clutter to the otherwise perfect dial.

But outside of that, there’s not a whole lot I’d change here. The JLC Polaris Geographic has a ton going for it as a luxury travel watch, and were I in the market for such a thing, it would definitely be near the top of my list.

Jaeger-LeCoultre Polaris Geographic

JLC added its Geographic complication — one of the best dual-time systems in the luxury watch game — to its Polaris dive watch. With the killer travel feature, 100m of water resistance, sporty looks and a 70-hour power reserve, this might just be the perfect vacation watch.