Fittingly held at Mr. Fogg’s, on Bruton Lane, which for the Londoners among us is just off Berkeley Square in the heart of Mayfair, Stephane Belmont introduced the new Geophysic to the attending press. For a watch that was originally linked to the crossing of the North Pole, under the polar ice cap by the nuclear submarine Nautilus, the idea of holding the presentation in the club that takes its inspiration from the circumnavigation of the globe, in eighty days no less, was a smart one. The bar room is decked out as a mix of an eccentrics living room, and an old world London club. In fact, the Reform Club! The very club where Phileas Fogg made his wager, set off, and returned in (just under) eighty days. The walls are adorned with stuffed animals and maps of places that were formerly coloured ‘red’ as part of the British Empire!
[Stephane Belmont, Jaeger LeCoultre’s very own Phileas Fogg, gives a speech about the Geophysic watch and the new edition.]
The watch was named after the year: 1958. No, not the year 1958: but the internationally declared convention that 1958 was the Geophysical year. It was an attempt to unite the various international bodies to explore some of the remaining untouched regions of the planet. The research programme was conducted by 67 nations from both the West and East, and involved the scientific and experimental fields of seismology and polar exploration. Something that would have definitely interested Jules Verne!
The Geophysic is the kind of watch that is missing in today’s market. It was from a time when the sports watch was not the size of a hockey puck, and you could wear the watch with formal attire, your casual attire, and your Navy uniform if you so wished. The original Geophysic was developed initially for use in precision timekeeping. It featured, at the time, a number of technical innovations that put the Geophysic at the pinnacle of watchmaking achievements. The base movement was the same manual wind as used in military watches at that time. The stop-second feature enabled precision time setting. To that was added a glucydur balance (for temperature variation) and then fitted with a shock absorber and a “swan neck” index for micro adjustments. The movement was housed inside a Faraday cage, a soft iron inner case that protects against magnetism.
[The original Geophysic with the route taken by the Nautilus under the North Pole]
To some extent Jaeger LeCoultre were not unlike some other brands at the time creating superlative chronometers for use in hazardous conditions and where precision timing was required. This particular watch: the Geophysic had the distinction of serving as the watch for the captain on board the USS Nautilus as it made its historic voyage under the ice at the North Pole and crossed from the Atlantic Ocean into the Pacific Ocean. It took three days of complete submersion and was conducted in such secrecy, because of the Cold War rivalries, that only after the mission was successfully completed did the world come to know about the accomplishment. It was seen as such an accomplishment, that the captain of the Nautilus (no, not Nemo): Captain Anderson made the cover of Life magazine.
[The original Geophysic with a picture of the USS Nautilus]
Recently, Jaeger LeCoultre have made a number of re-issues of previously iconic watches. Modern editions have been issued for the Memorvox and Reverso models and have proven as successful with contemporary consumers as they did originally. To some extent then, it is perhaps no surprise that the Geophysic has been reissued and revamped for more modern tastes in mechanical watches. The watch is now slightly larger with a diameter of 38.5 mm (the original was 35.5 mm). The watch now contains an automatic movement (Jaeger LeCoultre’s proprietary 898/1), but has (like its predecessor) used the best of movement technology for the time. In keeping with the original watch, the movement has a stop second for accurate time setting. The balance has screws for micro adjustment; kifparechoc for shock resistance, Spyr gears for smooth transmission of torque from the winding barrels, and ceramic ball bearings on the rotor for lubrication free winding. As with the original watch, the movement is housed inside the Faraday cage.
[The original Geophysic on the wrist. The very definition of an understated sports or activity watch]
Unlike the original Geophysic, the new watch is subjected to Jaeger LeCoultre’s 1000 Hour Control test for reliability. The new watch is water depth rated to 10 atmospheres (100 metres), which might not get it to the sufficient depth to cross the North Pole, but sufficient for most of us. Bucking the trend for display backs on watches, the new Geophysic has a solid back with a globe design as the original did.
There are three metals and each of them a limited edition. A steel version, which is the same metal as the original, but with an updated dial; a ‘3’ and ‘9’ now appear at the relevant parts of the dial. A ‘cross hair’ divides up the dial. The limited edition in steel has 800 pieces. An 18-carat rose gold version that carries the same dial design as the steel will come in a limited edition of 300 pieces. A platinum version that comes with the same dial design as the original will only have 58 pieces in the limited edition.
[The original and the new steel version]
[The original and the rose gold version]
[The original and the platinum version]
If it was my money, and it is a temptation for sure, the platinum cased version that is an exact replication of the dial was the pick of the set. The lustre of the metal, the clean look to the dial, the weight of the watch on the wrist was all just right. Add into the mix that there are only 58 in a limited edition, available only through the Jaeger LeCoultre Boutiques, makes it a classic everyday watch to have. It is elegant, tough, and made to withstand significant stresses on a mechanical watch. I am sure that Jules Verne, whether captaining the Nautilus, or traveling around the world in 80 days, would approve.
[The modern platinum Geophysic on the wrist.]
Andrew H This message has been edited by 219 on 2014-06-04 15:18:53 This message has been edited by 219 on 2014-06-04 15:19:22 This message has been edited by 219 on 2014-06-04 15:36:11 This message has been edited by amanico on 2014-06-08 00:03:54