Jaeger-LeCoultre Tribute to Deep Sea Luxury Watch Review

With the Jaeger-LeCoultre Tribute to Deep Sea, JLC of Le Sentier, Switzerland becomes the latest top-shelf watchmaker to issue a lovingly recreated modern iteration of a hallowed reference from its back catalog. Tribute watches run the gamut from loose interpretations (e.g., the 2007-present Blancpain Fifty Fathoms) to meticulous recreations that go so far as to reconstitute the flaws of the original (PAM00021, I’m looking at you). As with the 1959 original, the defining feature of the Tribute to Deep Sea is its unique diving alarm. By 1959, the eight-year-old JLC Memovox alarm wristwatch had become a signature of the company’s model line and the flagship of its mainstrean U.S. range. By integrating the Caliber 815 Memovox movement in to a large 39.5mm case, JLC created a highly visible underwater tool equipped with the ultimate fail-safe reminder to avoid out-diving one’s air supply. The Tribute to Deep Sea captures every detail of the original with startling fidelity. Right off the bat, JLC nails the Euro/US design dichotomy by issuing the Tribute in two distinct dial designs. Original Deep Sea Alarm watches were issued in two series with dramatically different dial designs for North American and Old World consumers. The JLC-signed European variant is considered to be the more elegant of the two, and its Tribute counterpart upholds this legacy. A simulated patina-look characterizes the luminova material on the watch face. Vintage watches lose their luminescent glow