THE JOURNAL
If it were invented today, it would likely be considered a gimmick. But the flippable watch face of Jaeger-LeCoultre’s iconic Reverso – which swivels to reveal a solid metal caseback – is anything but. As history shows, it came about for a very specific reason.
The story begins in the early 1930s with a group of British Army officers stationed in India who were getting thoroughly fed up with smashing their wristwatches while playing polo and challenged a travelling Swiss businessman, Mr César De Trey, to find them a solution. As luck would have it one of De Trey’s associates back in Switzerland happened to be none other than Mr Jacques-David LeCoultre, a watchmaker of some renown. On his return to his homeland, De Trey put the problem to LeCoultre. The watchmaker consulted with his engineers and the Reverso was born: a wristwatch that could slide and flip over in its base to protect the fragile watchface during a polo match.
Part of the charm of the Reverso’s origin story lies in the fact that, by today’s standards, it is not considered a sports watch at all. Indeed, the thought of wearing one while playing polo now seems faintly ridiculous.
But while the Reverso may in a sense be obsolete, its sporting origins a relic of a bygone era, the elegant rectangular shape and Art Deco styling of the watch itself have kept it in vogue, and it is now considered one of the most elegant timepieces a man can buy. Meanwhile, the reverse caseback – once a solid surface to repel flying mallets and balls – has become a canvas for engravings, intricately enamelled miniatures and other decorations.
Arguably the greatest evolution of the Reverso came in the 1990s with the introduction of the Duoface. In a move that purists might argue subverted the intention of the original watch, Jaeger-LeCoultre decided to use the blank space on the caseback for – you guessed it – another watchface. This ingenious piece of design added an entirely new dimension to the Reverso, which was now effectively two watches in one with twice as much real estate for displaying different time zones, calendar complications, moonphase indicators and more.
But this second watchface wasn’t just a space for additional information. It also gave the watch a subtly different personality through the use of alternate dial colours and finishing techniques such as Jaeger-LeCoultre’s famous Clous de Paris guilloché engraving. With the Reverso Duoface, you could have a watch for the daytime and a watch for the evening all without unbuckling your strap.
Needless to say, this makes the Duoface a unique proposition from a styling point of view. Here at MR PORTER, we’re not just interested in how a watch looks on the wrist, but also how it works with the rest of your outfit, so you can imagine that the Reverso Duoface – a watch that presents two styling opportunities in one – is doubly interesting for us.
To illustrate this, we’ve chosen a couple of standout models from the current Duoface rotation and styled them each in two different outfits, which you can see here – firstly a casual daytime look and then something smarter for the evening. In all instances, we’ve tried to reflect the quintessential Reverso qualities of timelessness and elegance.
We couldn’t end without giving special mention to one of the watches featured here, the brand-new Reverso Tribute Duoface Calendar. It’s essentially a combination of two existing models, the Tribute Calendar and the Tribute Duoface. On the main “recto” side, a triple-calendar complication presents the day, date and month and is balanced with an elegant moonphase display at six o’clock, while the back or “verso” side features a day-night indicator set in a dial with a subtle, sunrayed finish. It’s classic Jaeger-LeCoultre: virtuoso watchmaking wrapped up in discreet, understated design.