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Nicolas (amanico) shares a pivotal moment where an official Jaeger-LeCoultre photograph of the Master Compressor Memovox ignited his passion for the timepiece. This article explores the enduring appeal of this modern evocation of the Polaris, a watch that initially received a lukewarm reception but has since garnered a dedicated following. Nicolas invites fellow collectors to reflect on their own experiences with this distinctive JLC family.
It’s a great looking watch and looked fine even on my somewhat thin wrist. I loved the alarm with the bell sound and was very pleased with it at first. Unfortunately, however, after a while I found the compressor crowns really annoying. They were, to me, very fiddly and tended to dig in to the back of my wrist making the watch uncomfortable to wear. Sadly, I decided to move it on but I miss the look of it. But for those damned crowns it would definitely have been a keeper. Regards Kev.
The crowns never dug into my wrist; the back of the watch didn't bother me - although JLC could have done some smoothing on the design. The original Compressor design release that the then-moderator, Jaw did was fantastic. The one he did for the EWC was even more impressive. If it was updated and launched today, alongside the Polaris, it would out-sell the Polaris, I believe. But having 2 nice sport options (Patek has Nautilus AND Aquanaut), would bring more people to the table, IMO. -Dean
My first sampling of a memovox movement was in an IWC GST alarm. It was a great watch, but the cursive International Watch Company printing seemed at odds with the Bauhaus design of the rest of the watch. Then I had the Memovox compressor pictured. The alarm crown pulled out to turn off the alarm just seemed off for a dive watch. Now I have an Amvox 1 with the same movement, and it seems the best of the three to me.
I've been mildly obsessed with the Master Compressor era of JLC every since I bought my MC GMT. They really invested a lot of time, and money into this era and i'm so bummed they went the more traditional route. Anyways I found two interesting articles on this era below: web.archive.org The breakdown of the 975h movement: web.archive.org The 975h movement is what drew me to my watch and also the MC line in general. So many cool features: uni-directional winding, ceramic ball bear
Would def outsell the Polaris
It’s also my most accurate watch, beating out my 2021 Yacht-Master!
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