| Author | Message | ||
     Mstanga New member Username: Mstanga Post Number: 1 Registered: 08-2010 Rating: N/A |
Hi everybody, I'm italian, please apologize myself for my bad English. incredible but true, I found a stunning NOS Polaris Dial (the inner alarm dial too). It was in a box inside a drawer for about 40 years property from a SWISS former JLC employee. Index are almost orange (since it was in a box for so many years). I've seen only a couple like this in all these years. Now it's mine and I put it on my Polaris. And I still have the other one. I like to share it with You. Ciao Marco  | ||
| Mstanga New member Username: Mstanga Post Number: 2 Registered: 08-2010 Rating: N/A |
here's the only other one I saw in person in my life. It's property of an italian friend of mine  | ||
| Mstanga New member Username: Mstanga Post Number: 3 Registered: 08-2010 Rating: N/A |
here's some other closer scans of mine  | ||
| Mstanga New member Username: Mstanga Post Number: 4 Registered: 08-2010 Rating: N/A |
another scan  | ||
| Mstanga New member Username: Mstanga Post Number: 5 Registered: 08-2010 Rating: N/A |
the last scan of my Polaris Ciao Marco  | ||
| Mstanga New member Username: Mstanga Post Number: 6 Registered: 08-2010 Rating: N/A |
the last scan of my Polaris Ciao Marco  | ||
| Ilja Moderator Username: Ilja Post Number: 299 Registered: 05-2003 Rating: N/A |
Sorry to tell, but what you got there is a current production dial from the re-edition Polaris. The date window is a bit too large and 'touches' the thin white circle so that it is interrupted. Guess you more likly bought a pimped story than a NOS dial. ;) | ||
| Franco Junior Member Username: Franco Post Number: 11 Registered: 08-2010 Rating: N/A |
Ilja, in fact that is not just a characteristic of the "tribute" dials - this in the picture is the Polaris which I bought from you at least 5 years ago, and the Tribute did not exist then. There was a model , nicknamed the "Calypso", for the Italian market, done in about 200 pieces in the Sixties. It had a dial like this. Theory is that some of those dials have been around (I guess including the one of your/mine Polaris) and perhaps this is one of those too. Plus the "Tribute" dials did not have tritium in it. Ciao Franco  | ||
| Mstanga New member Username: Mstanga Post Number: 7 Registered: 08-2010 Rating: N/A |
Dear Mr. Ilja Probst I respect your opinion but I can not agree with you. In the post over here Mr. Franco explain You that this special kind of dial was designed for Calypso edition a special Polaris edition with a very limited number of pieces made. My NOS dial can not be a current production from re-edition of Polaris for many reasons: 1) the man who sold it to me owned this dial for a very long time (about 30 years) 2) the current production dial from re-edition of Polaris does not have T SWISS MADE T but only "SWIS MADE" 3) my NOS dial has tritium on index and not luminova 4) my NOS dial has different font (if you look very close) 5) the one you sold to Mr. Franco has the same characteristics of mine (fonts and interrupted circle) and you sold it to Mr. Franco about 5 years ago (ell before the re-edition of Polaris) I owned a Tribute to polaris since it was first produced a couple of years ago and I perfectly know this kind of watches. Would You be so kind to reconsider and correct your above statements. Here under You will find a photo of calypso edition (extracted from a JLC catalog) Best Regards Marco Stanghellini  | ||
| Mstanga New member Username: Mstanga Post Number: 8 Registered: 08-2010 Rating: N/A |
Dear Mr. Ilja Probst I respect your opinion but I can not agree with you. In the post over here Mr. Franco explain You that this special kind of dial was designed for Calypso edition a special Polaris edition with a very limited number of pieces made. My NOS dial can not be a current production from re-edition of Polaris for many reasons: 1) the man who sold it to me owned this dial for a very long time (about 30 years) 2) the current production dial from re-edition of Polaris does not have T SWISS MADE T but only "SWIS MADE" 3) my NOS dial has tritium on index and not luminova 4) my NOS dial has different font (if you look very close) 5) the one you sold to Mr. Franco has the same characteristics of mine (fonts and interrupted circle) and you sold it to Mr. Franco about 5 years ago (ell before the re-edition of Polaris) I owned a Tribute to polaris since it was first produced a couple of years ago and I perfectly know this kind of watches. Would You be so kind to reconsider and correct your above statements. Here under You will find a photo of calypso edition (extracted from a JLC catalog) Best Regards Marco Stanghellini | ||
| Mstanga New member Username: Mstanga Post Number: 9 Registered: 08-2010 Rating: N/A |
Please apologies myself for my bad English Here following a close scan of the date window. On the left you'll find my dial and on the right the dial of the Tribute to Polaris. Looking at the thin white circle line we can see that the line itself in the photo on the left arrive to touch the date windows who ideally continues the circle. In the photo on the right the line stops and the date windows is a bit on the right. The form of the date windows is different too.  | ||
| Mstanga New member Username: Mstanga Post Number: 10 Registered: 08-2010 Rating: N/A |
Now a scan of bottom of the dial. let's take look at "Automatic", the fonts are totally different, look at letter A look at the space between M and A. Now let's point our attention to number 6. The white portion of number 6 is different, angles inside number six are very different.  | ||
| Mstanga Junior Member Username: Mstanga Post Number: 11 Registered: 08-2010 Rating: N/A |
The indexes lines of the alarm circle are different for size, length and width.  | ||
| Mstanga Junior Member Username: Mstanga Post Number: 12 Registered: 08-2010 Rating: N/A |
other comparison from which many differences are evident.  | ||
| Ilja Moderator Username: Ilja Post Number: 300 Registered: 05-2003 Rating: N/A |
Well since Franco says that my former Polaris is having this particular layout I stand corrected. Sorry for the confusion.  Actually I don't buy the so called 'Calypso' story unless some *old* catalog shows up and detailing the watch with this ugly, what I prefer to call "phalus" minute hand. | ||
| Gregb Advanced Member Username: Gregb Post Number: 305 Registered: 10-2006 Rating: N/A |
Ilja, I was browsing my copy of "Reverso: the living legend" last night and noticed that on pg. 159 (English Edition), there is an identical 1968 Polaris shown with what you are calling the "phalus" hand set. I don't consider myself a Polaris expert, as I've only seen a few of the Polaris models across my desk and can't speak first-hand to any variations in production. However, these pictures from a 1992 JLC publication (long before the Tribute watches were produced) lends further credibility to the "Calypso"-edition story. Best regards, Greg | ||
| Ilja Moderator Username: Ilja Post Number: 301 Registered: 05-2003 Rating: N/A |
The Reverso book suffers a lot of errors or misinterpretations. The book is an external work for JLC and unfortunately they don't mention this watch as a "calypso" edition. Also catalogs from the 90's show this, most likely, same watch. IIRC Actually the story comes more or less from a former moderator at thepurists.com Marketing and pimping circumstances comes mind. ;) | ||
| Zaf Moderator Username: Zaf Post Number: 4756 Registered: 05-2003 Rating: N/A |
I've never seen the phalus hand on a vintage Polaris watch, ever. You'll also see in the JLC catalog, USA cased Futurematics with Jaeger-LeCoultre on the dial, so anything goes really in those... |