Elite Traveler March-April 2018

DISCOVER

elite traveler MAR/APR 2018 28

Jaeger-LeCoultre Polaris Memovox

BRAND PROFILE GRÖNEFELD

With familial roots in watchmaking that date back to 1912, the Grönefeld brothers, Bart and Tim, seem to be destined for horology. Before launching their own brand in the Netherlands with a tourbillon minute repeater, they honed their craft at technical schools, then at some of watchmaking’s most prestigious manufactures. Blending interesting and challenging horological concepts with impeccable finishings and decoration, they have garnered much praise in the industry and won some of its highest accolades. A small manufacture, it produced just 75 watches last year, 75 percent of which were bespoke, with clients selecting dial color, adding guilloché or creating art pieces. Contact Tim Grönefeld, co-founder, info@gronefeld.com, +31 620 624 673, gronefeld.com 1. One Hertz A large seconds subdial dominates

2. 1941 Remontoire Using the rare remontoire system, this watch has an eight-seconds constant- force mechanism, which means its timekeeping is accurate for the entire 35-hour power reserve. The brothers claim that this is the “most complicated time-only watch in the world,” and it was awarded the best men’s watch of 2016 at the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève. Its beautifully decorated movement features relief engraving, mirror-polishing, micro- blasting and circular graining, which provide wonderful contrast. $61,500, limited to 188 movements 3. Parallax Tourbillon Another GPHG prize winner, this time in the tourbillon category in 2014, the Parallax Tourbillon showcases a large, raised, flying 60-second tourbillon. Pairing a tourbillon with a central second hand allows for more readability (frequently seconds are indicated on the tourbillon itself, which can be difficult to see). It also contains a mechanism to stop the tourbillon at 60 seconds, so you can accurately set the time. A large indicator tracks its impressive 72 hours of power reserve. $170,000 in pink gold, limited to 28 pieces the clean dial, highlighting the independent dead seconds (or jumping seconds), which are powered by a secondary gear train. Unlike a movement with sweeping seconds, here, the hand ‘jumps’ once every second. Hours and minutes are indicated on a smaller subdial. Instead of pulling out the crown to adjust or wind the watch, a push of the crown switches the watch from winding to setting the time, easily visible on the indicator at 3 o’clock. $91,500 in pink gold

Born in 1968, the original Memovox Polaris was designed in an era of great expeditions. The Space Race was at its peak; just a decade earlier, Sir Edmund Hillary became the first man to summit Mount Everest; and the US Navy reached the bottom of the Challenger Deep in the Pacific Ocean’s Mariana Trench, which is the deepest known point in the seabed. Lionel Favre, Jaeger-LeCoultre’s current design director, thinks that his predecessors had this adventurous spirit in mind when creating the original Memovox Polaris, a watch for a man of action with wanderlust in his soul. This year, Jaeger- LeCoultre celebrates the 50th anniversary of the original Memovox Polaris with a new collection inspired by this sense of exploration. Favre describes the modern pieces as “a watch you can wear every day at every moment” with a focus on useful complications, joking that a minute repeater would not be very useful on a tennis court or on an expedition to the South Pole. The limited-edition Polaris Memovox takes specific design elements from the Memovox Polaris and incorporates the original’s cherished mechanical alarm. The central disc THE NEWPOLARIS

moves with a twist of the top crown, and the triangle indicates the time the alarm is set for. The other two crowns in the somewhat unusual three-crown design move the rotating inner bezel and set the time. Vanilla-colored Super-LumiNova indexes add a vintage look to the dial. For the modern traveler, there’s a titanium chronograph with world timer, which is easily adjusted with a crown at 10 o’clock. All of the models mix finishes on both the dial (sunray, grained and opaline) and on the case (hand-polished and brushed), lending an elegance to the sporty timepiece. Jaeger-LeCoultre Polaris Chronograph WT in titanium, $14,500, and Polaris Memovox, $12,600, both available online at jaeger-lecoultre.com

Jaeger-LeCoultre Polaris Chronograph WT

The original Memovox Polaris was designed in an era of great expeditions

Photos Denis Hayoun