WATCHES OF 2020

BEST ALTERNATIVE TO A ROLEX SUBMARINER

JAEGER-LECOULTRE POLARIS MARINER DATE £9,900

We may have been graced with a new Rolex Submariner in 2020, but I regret to tell you it will be all but impossible to get your hands on. It is also very much the margherita pizza of dive watches; fundamental to the entire category and appealingly pure of purpose, but›there is undeniably more flavour to be had elsewhere. Which brings me to the Polaris Mariner Date. Jaeger-LeCoultre doesn’t even begin to boast of a dive watch pedigree like Rolex, but it did make some much-loved models in the late ’60s, and its watchmakers›know their way around a workbench as well as anyone. The Mariner Date is recognisably its own beast, unlike many other dive watches that struggle to escape Rolex’s shadow. It’s defined by