Jaeger leCoultre "Navy Seal Diving Alarm"

There is no sense hiding that Jaeger leCoultre are amongst my favorites. This year instead of presenting a battery of ultra complicated and expensive pieces Jaeger have decided to go with the lover range and produce an offer that will work quite well in these times.

The "Navy Seal Memovox" is a real beauty, some even venture to call it the next Polaris. I would not be surtprised if they where right, this is a great piece! The only thing I do not understand is why this is not a regular production model. I believe Jaeger are passing on the chance to have a permanent best seller in their catalogue.

Perhaps one of the most surprising aspects about it is the incledibly thin looking face. For some magic optical effect the hands and face seen to be very close to the glass making it look quite shallow. This despite being around 12 mm think, like any diver out there. The proportions of the case are very well balanced and even if it is a large 44 mm diver it is not a huge monster. In fact, this could even be worn with long sleeve shirts. Not ideal, but possible. This "Navy Seal" is proof to 300 meters (1,000 feet) and yet the titanium case transmits the sound of the alarm as if it where an AMVOX1. The ceramic bezel works wonders apart from being a "must have" feature by now for a sports watch. It works also to accentuate the relatively shallow perception of the face. The placement of the brand and logo on the inside of the glass, so as to maintain a clean look on the face, works wonders. The classic solution would have been to place them on the turning alarm disk. This solution works better for me. There will be up to four different straps available; Articulated rubber, cordura fibber leather, titanium, moulded rubber and a diver kevlar strap as present in the box.

The list price for this Navy Seal will be 8,900 € which is surprisingly well priced considering precedents such as the Polaris (that was priced at 10,500 €). It will be limited to 1,500. Egoistically, I would have loved these to be much less, yet I expect these to be in such high demand that they might turn out to be to few. Remember that the Compressor Memovox has been discontinued and there is no diver alarm available in their entire catalogue (apart from the Polaris replica, although that would be more a collectors piece). I base my prediction on the fact that this is a product that, like the Polaris, has been demanded by the public for some time. If you need proof that just take a look here (Link here...). As you can see further down, the piece "thought" by Velociphile dates as far back as February 2005 and looks frighteningly familiar.

Jaeger leCoultre...