An odd-looking bird with oval case, cupola crowns, diamond shaped hands and rectangular marker on the seconds hand!

Together with all these different shapes you have the round alarm disk and indexes.

The different sized indexes are polished with a brush pattern and not angled in the same horizontal which gives a very strange perception of them depending on light and angle.

Sometime they look polished, sometimes they look almost black.

Not even the date window is where we normally see on a watch with the Calibre 916 movement. It’s located at six instead of three o’clock.

But it works, IMO! 

The placement of the date gives the dial a vertical symmetry which works very well here.

In combination with this “different” look, the original bracelet is also something you normally don’t see on these early 1970’s Memovox.

Shaped links which are opposite any of the other shapes of the watch. The only similarities would be the curve which resembles the case curve. 

If we take a closer look, we might find some explanation to all this.

1) The case is not made of the same company(s) which made the cases for the European market.

It was made by the STAR W.C. Company. 

In fact, the movements were manufactured in Switzerland and then shipped to the USA where they were cased and timed.

One detail I noticed is the markings on the rotor: “Adjusted Three (3) Positions”.

Normally on U.S. exported movements you see “Unadjusted” to avoid the higher import tax.

2) The bracelet is not made by JB Champion or NSA which you see most of the times.

The bracelet was made by Kreisler Stelux in Hong Kong.

Which may explain the very different looking LeCoultre text on the buckle.

But even if case and bracelet was made by a third party, I guess LeCoultre US and/or Jaeger-LeCoultre Switzerland must have been involved in the design of the watch.

The earliest mentioning of the 3072 I found so far is this ad from 1970: “The new Memovox HPG” – High Precision Guarantee.

OK, enough about the watch, let’s have a look at the box.

This might come as a surprise for some, but yes in the 1960s and a bit into the 1970s, this was the normal box for LeCoultre.

Some may claim that this green box was only used for the Polaris.

There were special boxes for some models, like the Geophysic and the Geomatic, but the Polaris had no special box.

YES - the LeCoultre Polaris used the same box, NO – this green box was not a special box exclusively for the Polaris!

That the Tribute To Polaris had a replica of this box as a special Limited Edition box was just a marketing stunt.

Same as the super doomed plexi on the Tribute To Polaris.

The original Polaris plexi is slightly doomed but with straighter sides and a sharp angle before the doom starts.

I guess when they designed the TT Polaris JLC looked at a very polished plexi and mistook it for original or they just liked the idea of a super doomed plexi…

Anyway, back to the box – the inside of the box very nice with white silk, green velvet, brass sign and a holder for your watch.

“The most exceptional watches and clocks in all the world”!

The outer box is also green with gold text and lines. 

Watch, box and papers in place:

Yes, the 3072 is a fun one!

Best

Blomman