Much has been said about the indisputable elegance of the Reverso, Jaeger-LeCoultre’s ageless icon that turns 90 this year. Indeed, in a world obsessed with stainless steel sports watches, the Reverso has etched its place amongst the horological pantheon with its versatile and deceptively simple swivelling case.
The origins of the Reverso can be traced to a polo match in India in the 1920s, when some officers of the British colonial army challenged Swiss businessman César de Trey to create a watch robust enough to endure the rigours of a polo match. De Trey brought this up with Jacques-David LeCoultre and Edmond Jaeger, the masters of micromechanics, who had already established their proficiency in miniaturisation with the Duoplan watch in 1925.
A tough row to hoe, the task was finally accomplished with the help of French designer René-Alfred Chauvot, who created a perfect rectilinear case, which in the words of patent application No. 712868 filed at the French Ministry of Trade and Industry on March 4th, 1931, “can be slid in its support and completely turned over”. With its Art Deco aesthetics alongside baton hands, dart-type indexes, Arabic numerals, and the swivelling case with three decorative gadroons on the top and bottom, the Reverso turned out to be a runaway hit.
