It would seem that my Week on the Wrist calendar has brought me a pair of challenging timepieces back-to-back. Two weeks ago I spent the week with F.P. Journe’s high-end quartz creation, and then this past week, I’m back dabbling with Jaeger LeCoultre and another complication that can be a bit of a hard sell — the deadbeat seconds. I’m the first to admit that I — as with most of my fellow enthusiasts — am hardwired to love the delicate sweep of a mechanical seconds hand. The idea of a deadbeat, at a fundamental level, sounds convoluted, not to mention complicated for the sake of being complicated to most of us whose daily lives are by no means impacted by the accuracy of a ticking second hand.
The complication in question dates all the way back to 1675 with the deadbeat escapement, though its arrival in the world of clockmaking took roughly another half a century. That’s right, think grandfather clocks. In more recent years the complication continues to roam through the halls of haute horlogerie at the hands of A. Lange & Söhne, Jaquet Droz, Arnold & Son and Grönefeld, with each piece commanding a fairly hefty price of entry. The new Jaeger-LeCoultre Geophysic True Seconds knocks the cost of entry of the complication down a reasonable amount, coming in at just under $10,000. That’s no small price for a steel automatic 3-hander, and it begs the question of what it’s like to wear over the course of a week.
Design
In terms of size, the Geophysic True Seconds is right in that sweet spot — especially for those of us with relatively slim wrists. At 39.6mm in diameter and 11.7mm thick, it’s large enough to feel both comfortable and substantial on the wrist and still slim enough to tuck under a shirt cuff as needed. Its stock leather strap is slim and comfortable, as it should be, for something that’s more on the dressy side. Though as you’ll see a little later on, its clean design lends itself well to a variety of strap options.
The case finishing on the Geophysic True Seconds varies from the recent Geophysic reissue in a couple of ways. Firstly, Jaeger took an interesting approach to the sides of the case by brushing them, and then switching to a mirror-polished finish on the lugs (on the reissue only the tops of the lugs are polished, and the entire case sides remain brushed). The odd transition in finishing on the case works really well, however I wish it were a little harsher break at the lugs. The second differing detail on the case itself is the addition of a display caseback that exposes the gorgeous caliber 770.
Back to the more important side of things, there’s so much to love when we start talking about the Geophysic’s dial and hands. In switching over to applied baton hour markers without any numerals and scaling down its hands, the True Seconds is much dressier than its reissue sibling. It does sport the same vintage-colored lume (including the tiny luminous dots along its rehaut), giving it a bit of a vintage feel, but the detail that really steals the show is its grained-silver dial. The Geophysic is another classic example of Jaeger’s ability to work with texture with a light and subdued hand. Whether we’re looking at the new Master Ultra Thin Date’s lovely champagne-colored sunburst dial, or the multitude of subtle textures applied to all sides of the Reverso Grande Complication à Triptyque, there’s no arguing that this is one of the many strong cards in Jaeger’s able hand. As “plain Jane” minimal as the Geophysic really is, I still couldn’t help but take the occasional moment to sit and admire how well its design came together.
In The Field
Now I know I’m going to take some flack from the purists in the room on this one, but over the course of the week I really loved how wearable and versatile the Geophysic was once removed from its factory strap. Don’t get me wrong, the slim and soft leather strap from Jaeger wears comfortably and totally suits the part when wearing it as a dress watch under a shirt cuff. If you’re a suit-and-tie man, or your daily activity always involves a collared shirt, there’s no doubt that you’ll be perfectly happy wearing the Geophysic as it comes equipped from Le Sentier. I, on the other hand, have two drawers full of straps for my one drawer full of watches replica, and I always find myself asking the question of what strap option would look best, be the most comfortable, or fit my mood on any given day.
With that in mind, the bulk of my week with the Geophysic was spent in temperatures in the mid-to-high eighties, and throwing it onto a fabric NATO proved to be a comfortable and wardrobe-appropriate option in my repertoire. In general NATO straps on a dress watch don’t really work out, however in this case the Geophysic’s less-than-dainty lug shape makes it work quite well in my book. Given that the dial has no highlight of color, matching it to any wardrobe accent I could find was just too easy.
The other great takeaway from my week on the wrist is how remarkably under-the-radar the Geophysic is. Sure, when I cross paths with other horology journalists or my fellow ultra-nerds of Redbar, many of them know what they’re looking at, but anywhere else it seems the general populus sees a well-finished quartz dress watch in a steel case. If I were in any sort of corporate role that required numerous trips overseas to any remotely sketchy places, this watch could easily become the go-to. After all, anything Rolex, Reverso, AP or other classics would easily be spotted by someone looking to roll you in a back alley, but with the Geophysic they would have to know a lot more and look much closer before you’d ever become a target.
Final Notes
At a personal level there remain two distinct sides of the coin when looking at the Geophysic True Seconds. On one hand, it’s a beautiful, simple and well-executed timepiece that’s plenty worthy of the name that adorns its dial. It’s totally under-the-radar, and to boot it boasts one of the rarer (and in most cases least useful) mechanical complications on the market today. If your collection is already extensive and you’re looking for something a little different that’ll give you that extra nod of approval from those in the know, this will be right up your alley. If you’re a little earlier in the game like me and are still a little hung up on the $9k price tag that could open doors to a nice steel chronograph, moonphase or GMT, then you might not be ready for the True Seconds — at least for now.