Jaeger-LeCoultre has climbed in price in recent years, without clearly enhancing what it offers regarding brand materials, finishing, innovation, or let’s be honest — prestige or resale value.
Whether it’s the result of cost and is inflation-based or if it’s opportunistic and a result of so-called “greedflation” is another topic of discussion. Neither JLC nor IWC should bear the brunt of the criticism from consumers, as a result of, nearly across the board, Swiss watch price increases — but in a way they have.
Anywhere I’ve read multiple comments about IWC’s decision last year to relaunch the Gerald Genta-designed Ingenieur — with an outsourced movement — at a starting price of $11,700, there’s almost universal criticism of the price tag being far too high. This Jaeger-LeCoultre has a much nicer movement and more complex dial but consumers have spoken and think this price is too high just like the IWC (I’ve read hundreds of comments on IG, YouTube, Hodinkee, and ABTW backing this statement up).
A consumer who wants it but has been told there are no discounts should ask again for a discount anyway, because even though the strategy at brands of this ilk is to deny even the existence of a discount — at the end of the day, they’d probably rather have you as a customer than going down the street to Breitling, Omega, or Rolex.
With the Jaeger-LeCoultre Polaris Geographic, the movement is at least in-house and has some details that help justify the price. Ironically, while the movement caliber 939 version 2 is nice (and has an upgraded power reserve compared to version 1) — it does not physically fill out the case so Jaeger-LeCoultre had to install a ring on the perimeter of the open caseback to hide the excess area at the edges. Still, the traditional Le Sentier-manufactured 4Hz automatic 282-component caliber has attractive Geneva stripes, perlage on the mainplate, blued screws, a skeletonized rotor, a 70-power reserve, and a crescent-shaped power reserve indicator on the dial — the latter of which is helpful for those who want to track how much power is left at any given time (more brands should include this).
The Polaris Geographic comes in a 42 mm x 11.54 mm stainless steel case that wears well and is predominantly brushed, with polished accents, for a refined look. The ocean-gray lacquered gradient dial features opaline, grainy, and sunburst finishes and is an area where higher costs could be justified. For instance, there are 35 layers of lacquer, which is more complex than a typical watch dial. However, regardless of how eye-catching the dial is, it’s still hard to argue the price is eye-watering.
On a good note, operating the dual time system, which displays the local/main time on the larger primary dial, and a second time zone on a smaller subdial, is relatively simple. A crown at 3 o’clock sets the local time, while a crown at 10 o’clock adjusts the second time zone display. The movement is designed to allow for easy adjustment of the second time display: once the local time is set, use the 10 o’clock crown to select one of the 24 cities of the second time zone and the hands will be set accordingly.
The Jaeger-LeCoultre Polaris Geographic (Ref. Q9078640) has a sapphire crystal, a sapphire caseback, dual screw-down crowns, is water resistant to 200 meters, and comes with a textured black rubber strap and a blue-gray canvas strap, both interchangeable (and with an interchangeable folding clasp). A stainless steel bracelet is available at an additional charge.
The retail price is $16,100.
Photos by Jaeger-LeCoultre.
