Watch Dandy

Editor’s note: Jaeger-LeCoultre is widely regarded as one of the best watchmakers on the planet … and for good reason. The Swiss outfit has been responsible for more advancements and complications in the mechanical watchmaking world than pretty much any other manufacturer. And what’s more, JLC has made movements for some of the top marques in the horological industry — name a Swiss watchmaker and chances are JLC has made a movement for them. There’s a reason they’re called “The watchmaker’s watchmaker”. Most of the Jaeger-LeCoultre collection is made up of svelte, sophisticated dress watches, so it’s pretty easy to overlook the Polaris Date if you’re in the market for a steel sports watch, but you really shouldn’t, because it represents excellent value when you take into account what it has to offer.  There’s a lot of options in Jaeger-LeCoultre’s Polaris collection. But I think this one might be my favourite — the Polaris Date. It’s a choice purists might find a little weird. After all, this is an uncomplicated watch, lacking either the classic alarm or the more impressive chronograph/world timer functionality. And while it’s not particularly complicated, it’s not entirely uncomplicated. I’m committing that most cardinal of watch nerd sins…

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Here’s a question for you: Who is the greatest male style icon of the 20th century? Is it Paul Newman? No. Is it Elvis Presley? Absolutely not. Is it James Dean? No, but getting closer. OK, as the title rather obviously suggests, the greatest male style icon of the 20th century was, by some margin, Steve McQueen. Here was a man who set the tone for what was considered cool in just about every facet of what men cared about, whether it be what cars to drive, what clothes to wear and, most importantly, what watches to have attached to your wrist. In fact, McQueen’s influence was such that, to this day, the Rolex Explorer II ref. 1655 is known as the “Steve McQueen Explorer”. Now, McQueen had quite a few timepieces in his own personal collection besides the 1655, but the prolific actor also wore some iconic timepieces on the silver screen from watchmakers like Heuer, Rolex and Jaeger-LeCoultre. Rather luckily for us, Jared Paul Stern, writing for Maxim magazine, has studied some of McQueen’s most iconic roles to see what timepieces he wore. Whether you’re a fan of McQueen’s style, or just want to know what watch he…

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