The Reverso is the original customisable watch – at least, since watches started being worn on the wrist rather than carried in your pocket. It wasn’t planned this way, but it took no time at all for the practical nature of the flip-over case to find a second purpose as an artistic canvas.

Back in 2021, for our 10th anniversary, MR PORTER partnered with Jaeger-LeCoultre to create a series of exclusive Reverso models that paid homage to five global cities of style and influence: Hong Kong, London, Milan, Paris and New York. Each came engraved with a famous landmark on the inside of the case, from Milan’s gothic Duomo to the Eiffel Tower. No one could really argue with the choice of locations, but at the same time, we realise it left some major cities feeling overlooked.

Now, two years later, the series continues with three more references, honouring Los Angeles, Singapore and Sydney. Three more hubs of cultural importance – but also, importantly, three big watch-collecting towns. Engraved on the back you’ll find the Marina Bay Sands hotel in Singapore, the Sydney Opera House and the Los Angeles skyline viewed from the seafront.

The number of brands with which Bamford Watch Department has collaborated grows yearly, and now includes luminaries such as Chopard, Girard-Perregaux and Franck Muller. But the Mayfair-based hive of activity is probably best known for its many takes on the TAG Heuer Carrera. In just the past two years, Bamford has given us Carrera collabs with Porsche customiser RUF and Highsnobiety, Japanese motor racing team Ikuzawa, designer Wes Lang, cult US prepsters Rowing Blazers and, perhaps most surprisingly, TikTok.

Founder Mr George Bamford is as crazy about cars as he is watches. And somehow he has a knack for treating the Carrera with respect yet pushing the boundaries of what it can be. For MR PORTER, he has created three exclusive references in 18k yellow gold.

The metal is beloved by Carrera-heads for its association with so-called John Player Special liveries, but Bamford Watch Department’s approach has seen it introduce warm tones of burgundy red, British racing green and dark brown to the dials. Each is based on the 42mm Carrera Chronograph, with the in-house Calibre Heuer 02 inside, an 80-hour automatic movement with column wheel and vertical clutch.

On the subject of appreciating classic chronographs, you will not find a greater evangelist for these designs than Mr William Massena, founder of Massena LAB, the New York-based brand that, like Bamford Watch Department, is producing exciting, dynamic collaborations everywhere you look.

The Archetype 1.1 and 1.0 – the former completely exclusive to MR PORTER, and produced in a run of just three watches – represent a contemporary take on ultra-traditional chronograph designs. The central feature of both is the inclusion of a tachymetric scale on the dial; a nod to the era when watches were essential functional tools, allowing the wearer to calculate speed over a fixed distance. The 1.0 presents its scale in a deep blue over a pale pink dial, in a spiral pattern common to chronographs of the 1930s and 1940s, while the 1.1 opts for a peripheral arrangement.

Both watches come in a 42mm stainless-steel case, perhaps their most significant concession to modern tastes, and use hand-wound Sellita calibres. The sapphire crystals are of a “glassbox” style, running right to the edge of the case, and the unguarded pushers and crown also evoke the forms of 1940s and 1950s watch designs.