Nearly a century since its debut, and we’re still seeing newer alter-egos of the Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso year after year. As an Art-Deco cult classic that redefined the norms of watchmaking elegance in the 1930s, it was the Reverso that put Vallée de Joux’s JLC manufacture on the map, upgrading its reputation from being a movement-crafting maison to a proper watchmaker. However, we tend to allow a key origin detail to slip by – the idea for the Reverso was conceived nearly seven thousand kilometres from its home in British India.
All these years later, the Reverso retains its earliest forefather’s original dimensions while offering its caseback as an eternally renewing canvas of haute joaillerie, bespoke treatments, and artistic brilliance. While simplistic in form, this reversible icon has housed sheer marvels of mechanical mastery since its rebirth in the 90s, boasting an exceedingly long resume of complications, movements, and micro-mechanic feats. Take 2021’s Reverso Hybris Mechanica Calibre 185 Quadriptyque – a testimony of how far the Reverso has come since its genesis, showcasing four faces, 11 complications and 800 parts! At first glance itself, it’s almost impossible not to be drawn in for a closer inspection, only to be wowed further by its quadruple mechanical alter-egos.
While the origin story of the Reverso isn’t quite the ‘big bang’ event, like in the case of fellow icons of its era, this one was prosaic, originally designed to solve a British Polo player’s irk. With an intertwined history with British India, near-century-long legacy, and 90s rebirth, we’re firing up our horlogerie time machines, tracing the Reverso’s roots from origins, alter-egos through generations, and rise to glory.
An Idea Born on the Polo Fields of British India
During the mid-19th century in British India’s Manipur, Joseph Ford Sherer, an East India Company lieutenant in the 44th Regiment of Sylhet Light Infantry, grew fond of a local royal game called ‘sago kanji’ or ‘horse hockey’. This equestrian sport, consisting of jockeys on horsebacks wielding sticks and striking a ball across a rectangular pitch, became later popularised as Polo. Sherer and fellow Brit, Captain Robert Stewart, went on to establish their own polo club, the Silchar Kangjai Club – their spirit and passion for the sport flew over to their motherland, further expanding into Europe.
Before The Reverso
Before Jaeger-LeCoultre was tasked with creating the Reverso, manufacturing movements were Jaeger-LeCoultre’s bread ‘n’ butter. Headquartered in Le Sentier, just about an hour North of Geneva, Antoine LeCoultre’s 500-watchmaker workshop – ‘Le Grange Maison,’ bloomed to become one of Vallée de Joux’s most revered manufacturers. With a fleet of patents already on their belt, Jacques-David LeCoultre – a maestro of micro-engineering and Parisian haute horologist Edmond Jaeger, set their sights on ultra-thin watches in 1903. Their mastery in movement miniaturisation led to the creation of 1925’s Duoplan – the world’s smallest
‘Flipping’ The Problem Over
You must be wondering, if creating a swivelling case was the solution, what would’ve been the problem case? As polo gained popularity in parts of Europe, a common irk arose – players often found their timepiece’s crystals damaged by errant mallets during the game. When Swiss native César de Trey visited India in the 1930s, he encountered British Officers troubled by their broken crystals. To solve this, he devised a timepiece with a rectangular case that could slip out of a socket and flip over, exposing its case back while protecting the crystal. To bring this pioneering design to life, de Trey sought out Jacques-David LeCoultre III, Edmond Jaeger, and French designer René-Alfred Chauvot. This rectilinear case design had its patent application filed at the French Ministry of Trade and Industry the next year, on March 4th, 1931.
Enter the Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso
Latin for ‘turn around’, its case design consisted of two parts. The first was a swivelling inner case that could rotate 180 degrees on a sliding hinge. The second is a larger outer case, which uses parallel groves, spring-loaded pins, and a locking mechanism to allow the inner case to move horizontally, flip over, and lock in place. With a hefty dose of Art Deco elegance, the Reverso boasted a rectangular dial with sharp baton-shaped hands and Arabic indexes embodied in a swivelling case – becoming Jaeger-LeCoultre’s first-ever timepiece. However, though the Reverso was conceived as a solution to a polo irk, its rear, clean-slated case back became a canvas for limitless creative possibilities, including jewel enrichment, family crests, personal messages, micro paintings and many more.
The Rise of The Reverso
Thanks to its radical design and plush bespoke potential, the Reverso became an icon on arrival. In form, it sizes a ratio of 1 x 1.16 – historically referred to as the ‘divine proportion’ for its excellent geometric and aesthetical brilliance. Johannes Kepler, a German astronomer and famous mathematician, stated that “the image of man and woman stems from the divine proportion”.
In its DNA, it was still a men’s sports watch, allowing its unique appeal to unfurl to sports like tennis, golf, motor racing, and sailing. Furthermore, the Reverso was a stunning wrist-worn obelisk of the era’s Art Deco finesse – the triple gadroons, a decorative horizontal engraving on the top and bottom sides of the swivelling case, best expressed this. However, the Reverso’s most notable feat was its shiny metallic caseback, which, as aforementioned, became a canvas for bespoke treatments.
One of the finest examples of this was a 1936 Reverso which featured an enamel painting of a traditionally dressed Indian woman. A special-edition Reverso commemorated Amelia Earhart’s flight from Mexico City to New York in 1935, and General Douglas MacArthur’s personal Reverso featured his initials on its caseback. Offered in makes of steel, gold, or bi-metal and worn as timepiece pendants, opulent handbag tags, or simply wristwatches, it catered to the fashion sensibilities of the era’s women too. These factors allowed the Reverso to become one of the top-selling luxury sports watches of the 20th century.
The Eight Ultra-Rare Patek Philippe Reversos
Here’s a slice of history lost in the vast archives of horlogerie. Three decades before the Reverso in 1902, Jacques-David LeCoultre was an administrator at Patek Philippe, leading them to sign a trade partnership. And so, right after the launch of the Reverso, Patek Philippe’s curiosities in reversible cases rose, resulting in them receiving eight Reversos from Jaeger-LeCoultre between 1931 and 1932. While half the lot was cast in white gold, the remaining consisted of white and yellow gold. In 2000, one of the eight was hammered for CHF 335,000, and a decade later, another showed up at Christie’s, selling for CHF 147,000.
New Era, Same Reverso
Up till the 40s, the Reverso had a glorious run. However, as World War II and the 50s began, the enamour of Art Deco silently dimmed out, and rounder sports watches came into vogue. The next decade, the quartz crisis hit Switzerland, forcing JLC to focus on mechanical innovation and leading to the Reverso falling prey to changing times.
The Reverso saw a glimmer of hope in the 70s, as Italian distributor Giorgio Gorvo purchased the final batch of 200 Reversos and sold them in just a month – proving that the appeal for luxury watches and vintage, Art-Deco pieces is still alive. Inspired by this, JLC revived the Reverso in 1975 as a ladies’ quartz watch. Observing its success, JLC tasked Daniel Wild in 1981 to re-engineer the Reverso for a new era, and just four years later, the world witnessed the new Reverso. While the original1931 model consisted of 23 parts, Wild’s design bumped the number to 55, making it much sturdier and water-resistant.
Finally, in the 90s, the Reverso 60ème debuted – celebrating the line’s 60th anniversary. This sparked the inclusion of mechanically masterful movements into the Reverso, including minute repeaters, perpetual calendars, gyro-tourbillons, astronomical displays, and many more. All leading to 2021’s Reverso Hybris Mechanica Calibre 185 Quadriptyque – a paean of the Reverso’s 90-year legacy and expression of how an Art Deco polo watch became a cultural phenom.
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