A dive watch from Jaeger-LeCoultre that brings a poetic touch to the most prosaic category of watches.

Let me tell you what I like about dive watches. It’s certainly not the ability to spend prolonged amounts of time submerged at great depths – nothing could scare me more. It’s not necessarily the chunky construction, either – I respect it, and there’s a lot to be said for a watch that has a reassuring heft to it. But I like it when your choice of watch doesn’t restrict your choice of clothing, jutting out from your cuff as they are wont to do. No, what I really like about dive watches are the names.

The basic formula for a dive watch is incredibly simple; hardy cases made to resist great amounts of water pressure, with (usually) black dials and big (sometimes cartoonishly so) hands and hour markers, with a rotating bezel of some sort and other sturdy touches like screw-down crowns and secure clasps. The formula has been refined and refined – and this Jaeger-LeCoultre certainly sits at the refined end of the dive watch spectrum – but is inherently basic. Dive watches are the muscle cars of the watch world, uncomplicated machines built to do one thing well and to look good when doing it.

But the names: this is where the magic comes in. And the joy of it is that dive watches are so ubiquitous that every trench of the marine lexicon has been plumbed (including, of course, “Marine” – more than once, not to mention a Supermarine). There are Aquaracers, Aquatimers and Aquises, Bathyscaphes and Barracudas, Scubas, Tridents and Tuna Cans (OK, so that last one’s just a nickname, but still). There are jaunty ones, such as the Ahoi from NOMOS Glashütte. Solemn ones, like Panerai’s Mare Nostrum. And mythical ones: Nautilus, Pontos, Pelagos. I love them all. Which is why I was so delighted when Jaeger-LeCoultre announced that it was bringing out a watch called the Polaris Mariner.

Polaris makes me think of Cold War submarine captains, nervously navigating the Arctic Ocean, while “Mariner” is a jump further back in time to Mr Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s epic of 1798 and the becalmed menace of the Antarctic. Landlubber that I am, I’m captivated by the idea of these great voyages and the wild ocean (and let’s face it, the lacquered blue dial helps there, too).

The watch itself is a characterful entry to a crowded field, elevated not only by that dial but by the inner rotating bezel (controlled by the second crown) and subtle, yet clear dial markings with tiny traces of orange. I have a soft spot for Jaeger-LeCoultre’s forays into tool watch territory. The pure credentials are all there, but the execution remains as fine as with their dress watches. I wouldn’t wear it diving – a reflection on me rather than the watch – but I’d like to imagine myself as someone who would.

Materials: stainless steel

Width: 42mm

Height: 13.92mm

Water-resistance: 300m

Power reserve: 70 hours

Price: £_9,300_