When a watchmaker decides to work with a blue dial, a lot is being said in terms of defining the vision for the watch. It is far easier to capture the details of the watch on a white, silver or black dial. For example, the visibility of the subdials, date, month and year apertures, along with measurement scales and moon phases will depend a lot on their backdrop. With a blue dial, a lot of the elements can be lost, if not designed well.
There is a lot that you can do in terms of shading and grading, when it comes to a blue dial. No doubt, the color evokes a royal feeling, and the warmth of the hue complements a stainless steel case, as well as a gold or rose gold case. Which is why we see many watchmakers, give us exclusive timepieces in blue-colored dials.
Today, we discuss the Jaeger-LeCoultre 2019 Polaris Date Limited Edition timepiece, that is designed with a unique blue dial. Jaeger-LeCoultre is not new to blue, in the past they have given us watches like the Memovox Alarm and the Geophysic True Second, which have been very popular in the circuit.
As a sporty watch, the new Jaeger-LeCoultre 2019 Polaris Date Limited Edition is perfect. It takes the design cues from the 1968 classic, Polaris Memovox, which happens to be a highly collectable timepiece. Sporting multiple dégradé finishes, the dial is teamed with vanilla-colored Superluminova on the hands and markers.
When Blue Fades into Blue
Essentially, ‘dégradé finishes’ is French for ‘to degrade’ and here it means fading from one color into another. You can see this visibly on the dial, how the blue ‘fades’ from one shade to another. It looks more concentrated in the central part of the dial and elegantly moves into a lighter shade of blue.
Limited to only eight hundred watches, Jaeger-LeCoultre is employing another good strategy, which has worked for them in the past – the watches are available in North America first. So, not only are the watches limited in numbers, but they are limited to a location before it opens up for the rest.
Details that are Impactful
The dial hosts a date aperture at 3 o’clock and the matte navy blue chapter ring functions as a rotating bezel. The case is teamed with a navy blue integrated rubber Clous de Paris strap, which makes the 42 mm diameter stainless steel case stand out bright and peppy. The blue of the rubber strap matches the color of the inner bezel.
I know I’m harping once again on the turquoise radial dégradé dial center, but the truth is that it just stands out so prominently. Case point being, the vanilla-colored Super-LumiNova used on the markets looks more impactful here than on the black-dialed alternative seen earlier. As we know it, this new hand-lacquered dial, sporting the blue double-gradient sunray, grained and opaline finish watch-face, is exclusive to this special model.
The solid caseback comes with four engravings – a Scuba diving insignia, the Jaeger-LeCoultre crest, the phrase “1000 HOURS CONTROL” (signifying the assembled watch has been through 1,000 hours of testing before it was released for us), and “Limited edition – One of 800”.
Under the hood you will find the JLC automatic caliber 899A/1 which offers a 38-hour power reserve and is water-resistant to 200 meters. The 2019 Polaris Date Limited Edition will be available for $8,250.
