Jaeger-LeCoultre and Vacheron Constantin revisit the archives to woo a younger generation

At January’s SIHH watch fair, Vacheron Constantin and Jaeger-LeCoultre both unveiled collections inspired by heritage pieces, aimed at reaching first-time and younger watch buyers.

Jaeger-LeCoultre: Polaris

As we have come to expect in the world of watchmaking , to launch something new it helps to start with something old. And for Jaeger-LeCoultre that something takes the shape of a 1968 Memovox Polaris – a rare combination of dive watch and mechanical alarm that compacted the firm’s advanced engineering into a hardy wrist tool.

Only 1,714 examples were ever made, but such is its revered status that the brand saw it as an ideal base to create a sporty, all-purpose watch at a more accessible price point. The range starts at ￡5,950.

“It was a hole in the collection,” admits Geoffroy Lefebvre, deputy CEO at Jaeger-LeCoultre (there is currently no CEO). “We needed something catering to the elegant, sporty ‘man in motion’ of today. And you see a lot of vintage Polaris on social media, it has a completely unmistakable style.”

Whereas in the 1960s Polaris was a niche subcategory of the Memovox alarm watches, for 2018 the Polaris becomes a full collection. One of which is indeed a Memovox with the alarm function, though this is limited to 1,000 watches.

“We have collectors who like waking up to the buzz of the Memovox rather than their phone alarm,” says Lefebvre.

Nevertheless, the clear priority is to make a success of the collection’s core pieces and those using what Lefebvre calls “daily use complications”: date and no-date automatics, a chronograph and a chronograph world time.

Visually, the range lies somewhere between the detailed elegance of Jaeger’s classic pieces like the Reverso, and the more engineered feel of the high-end Master Compressor sports watch.

For now, the Polaris range broadens the brand’s entry-level offering considerably. The door is being left open, too, for the collection to move in other directions. There’s even a suggestion that the grandes complications under the brand’s Hybris Mechanica banner could also be a possibility in the future.

From ￡5,950 for the Polaris Automatic; 020 3402 1960; jaeger-lecoultre.com

Vacheron Constantin: FiftySix

Vacheron Constantin, meanwhile, has turned back the clock to the 1950s with the FiftySix, a pronounced design with which the brand plans to target a younger audience. The collection is inspired by a single reference from 1956 (hence the name), a delicate, yellow-gold dress watch representative of Vacheron’s elegant mid-century aesthetic.

In contrast to Jaeger-LeCoultre’s accurate recreation of the Polaris, this is more of a springboard than a template, the signature features being the sloping lugs, extruded “glassbox” crystal and a crisp look described by the brand as “retro-contemporary”.

A total of six references exist: time-only automatics with a date; a radial day-date design and a handsome triple calendar moonphase, all available in rose gold with white dials, or steel with grey dials.

“The idea is to offer an elegant, casual, classic line, which is more affordable thanks to the use of steel, something which can be a new door to the Vacheron Constantin world,” says Christian Selmoni, Vacheron’s style and heritage director.

The Fifty-Six starts at ￡10,500 for the time-only version in steel, a watch that lowers the grand manufacture’s entry-level price point by several thousand pounds.

To make this possible, the two basic versions (in steel and gold) must do without the brand’s vaunted Geneva Seal hallmark of in-house movement manufacturing and high-end finishing, using Cartier’s calibre MC1904 – made in a centralised Richemont Group facility and finished by Vacheron Constantin – as a base movement. (All of the other references in the range have in-house movements and carry the hallmark.)

“The Geneva Seal certification means something like 40 per cent more cost, and for the time-only FiftySix it didn’t really make sense,” says Selmoni, revealing that there will be more to come. “We’ll certainly have more models soon. It’s a watch that suits complications well.”

From ￡10,500 for the time-only (steel); 020 7578 9500; vacheron-constantin.com