Elvis, Range Rover, Submariner, Madonna, Reverso: what do they have in common? Each has reached such a stratospheric level of fame that it need not be referred to by its full name. Staying ahead of the ever-changing times is their other shared denominator, and in the case of the Reverso it is a watch that has held a characteristic relevance, appreciated by male and female customers alike, for an impressive eighty-five years.
Originally created in 1931, the watch was intended for polo players, hence its case was designed to flip over and protect the dial from shocks. Such a narrow purpose could easily have produced a niche product, yet it instead became a fertile breeding ground for a seemingly inexhaustible array of designs, from high complications and dual-time-zone pieces with two faces to some of the most beautifully decorated and engraved watches ever made. Funnily enough, Jaeger-LeCoultre may be 183 years old, but the eighty-five-year-old Reverso has come to define the brand more than any other timepiece it has created.
So an anniversary of this magnitude demanded a response. "Two years ago, we saw that the Reverso collection was composed of fifty-three different cases and five styles of dial," says Daniel Riedo, the chief executive of Jaeger-LeCoultre. "It was time to refocus the codes of the Reverso." What the maison did was distil the range into three families: Reverso Classic, Reverso Tribute and Reverso One, each available in small, medium and large.
It then added a personalisation service, Atelier Reverso, allowing customers to create one-off versions through a digital configurator, currently available only in the boutiques but slated to reach the online e-boutique before long. To showcase how creative the canvas can be, the firm asked the famed shoe designer Christian Louboutin to have a go; his various Reversos, including one with his signature red leather lining a strap, are now for sale to the general public.
Iconic may be an over-used term, but the Reverso is arguably entitled to it, especially given how well it continues to perform after so many years. Most aficionados still consider it a fundamental component of any serious watch collection, the rare piece that has earned its single-word fame.
Words: Nicolas Shammas & Nadine Khalil
