HANDS-ON: The Jaeger-LeCoultre Geophysic Universal Time

Felix Scholz

Last year Jaeger-LeCoultre revisited the Geophysic – a utilitarian scientific watch from 1958 that was designed to travel under the North Pole. The 2014 release was a limited edition, and a very faithful re-issue. Fast-forward to Watches & Wonders 2015 and the Geophysic is quickly becoming a growing line and an important focus for the brand.

JLC has announced two new versions of the Geophysic in Hong Kong – the simple three handed True-Second and the much less simple Universal Time. But before we start talking about that beautiful dial or the worldtime complication, we need to explore some of the subtleties of this new Geophysic. Like its less complicated cousin the Universal Time features a True-Second movement, which is essentially JLC’s take on the classic dead-beat seconds. Rather than the usual sweeping second hand that is the hallmark of a mechanical watch the True-Second ‘ticks’ from second to second, much like a quartz movement. While it appears simple, this ticking hand – originally conceived to allow for precision timekeeping requires an additional 30 components including an additional hairspring. The ticking seconds isn’t the only mechanical innovation the Universal Time boasts, the Calibre 772 movement has a handsome new gold rotor, and an exclusive new non-circular balance wheel called the Gyrolab – first developed for the Master Compressor Extreme LAB 1. This high-tech movement lives up to the scientific origins of the Geophysic, and looks good thanks to its depth and Geneva stripe finishing.

On the front of the watch the first thing you notice is that stunning map of the world, pink gold continents rising out of oceans rendered in graduated blue lacquer, which gives the illusion of depth. It’s also a watch designed for ease of use. The city disc is fixed, so you’ll always know where to quickly find Hong Kong or Sydney. And you might notice that some cities also display a little asterix, or sun. They represent places with summer time, and when it’s summer you read the time above the sun to get the accurate local time. Once the Universal Time disc is set, you don’t need to adjust the city disc – it automatically adjusts whenever you reset the hands. The hour hand can be set independently of the minutes and seconds – allowing for quick changes that don’t impact the precision of the watch.

The Universal Time is a very well balanced watch. A beautiful and distinctive dial powered by a technical, well finished movement in a case that is confidently, rather than overtly, masculine. The Geophysic will be a very popular line for JLC, and based on this Universal Time it’s easy to see why.

Jaeger-LeCoultre Universal Time Australian pricing

Reference Q8108420 in stainless steel has a retail price of $19,000 AUD.
Reference Q8102520 in pink gold has a retail price of $31,500 AUD.