Among all the watches (and there aren’t many) generally anointed as all-time classics, surely none is as charmingly left-field, if not downright improbable in both concept and execution, as the Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso. As a watch that flips over on itself, sitting securely with its dial folded away and the reverse side worn outwards, it is in a category of one. And fair enough; it was invented to fill a decidedly specialist niche, aiming to keep the glass protected while the wearer crashed about on the polo field.

That was in 1931, when a patent was taken out for the beautifully neat mechanism by which this singular magic is performed: slide the inner case to one side, flip it over and slot it back into place (the back now on the front) with a smooth click.

That faultless system hasn’t changed, nor has the Reverso’s magisterial Art Deco look, with a rectilinear case that curves at the flanks, tapers gracefully at the top and bottom, and is banded above and below the dial with a trio of “gadroons” (or linear notches). It evokes wonderfully the Streamline Moderne aesthetic of the late Art Deco period and proves that while some designs are improved and refined over time, the best are nailed right from the start.

Which perhaps explains how what might have been written off as an experimental curio has come to stand as a totemic statement of sophistication. Not bad for a watch dreamt up in the heat of the British Raj by a former supplier of false teeth.

That man was Mr César de Trey, a Swiss businessman who had recently switched from selling dentistry equipment to watches when he visited India in 1930. There, British army officers let him know that their watches were being constantly (and unsurprisingly) damaged on the polo field. Evidently, with wristwatches by then becoming highly fashionable, removing them was a less palatable option than finding a way to protect them. To that end, de Trey rushed back to Switzerland to develop his idea for a flippable watch, turning to a watchmaking firm well-known for its technical wizardry. Within a year, the Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso was born.

Whether it ever made it to the playing fields of the Raj is not clear, but the Reverso’s allure has surely never rested on its ability to resist knocks. In fact, it’s everything else about the Reverso that makes it so beguiling and enmeshed in delicious contradictions. It was designed for sporting practicality, but its aura today is ineffably sartorial. It is discrete, yet unmistakeable. Ostensibly a simple timekeeper, it doubles as a tactile, satisfying objet to play with and experience, with the analogue feel of something that’s been truly crafted. It’s clearly a child of its era, but it’s also agelessly cool.

And in its 90th year, broader stylistic fashions around bold colours place the Reverso – for which full-saturation dials were part of its original charm – perfectly on trend. Witness the wonderful bottle-green dial found on the latest addition to the Tribute family, the line that cleaves most closely to the original design, alongside vibrant blue or burgundy options.

Today’s Reverso-curious gent has two essential decisions to make in choosing his watch: do you go mono or duo, Tribute or Classic? Monoface Reversos present a single face and plain reverse side (perfect for engraving and personalising), in the historically accurate mold; Duoface versions offer a dial on either side, creating arguably the most elegant travel watch imaginable. With the front dial, you can keep your eye on the local time, while the reverse dial, complete with a day/night display, enables you to monitor the time zone back home. (With typical Jaeger-LeCoultre ingenuity, both dials can be independently adjusted via the single winding crown).

While that’s a functional consideration, Tribute vs Classic is all about style. The Classic Reverso is that bit more conservative, with dials displaying a gorgeous guilloche decoration and Arabic numerals. Contrastingly, the Tribute line throws things back to the Jazz Age, with baton hour markers, dauphine hands and those rich colours – all inspired by the Reversos of the 1930s.

After vanishing in the 1940s, the Reverso was first revived in the 1970s, but it’s in the modern era that it’s risen to the status of cultural artefact: symbolic of Jaeger-LeCoultre’s ingenuity at its finest and of all that’s good about old-fashioned, handmade watches.

The variants have been innumerable, at all levels of complexity and invention, but all held together by that unimpeachable, if improbable, design. It’s what gives the Reverso that rarest of attributes: the quality of an icon.