At this year’s Watches and Wonders, Jaeger-LeCoultre pulled out all the stops for its homage to it polo origins. Its booth—the 1931 Polo Club—is an immersive three-storey space that reinterprets horses stables but it feels more like a museum, a temple of tribute to its enduring icon, the Reverso.
We know the story of the Reverso’s origin—Swiss businessman César de Trey had a problem. In India, British army officers, challenged de Trey to create a watch that can tahan the rigours of polo; the watch glass often broke from the impact of the ball or mallet. De Trey worked with Jacques-David LeCoultre, and through Jaeger SA, tasked French industrial designer René-Alfred Chauvot to design a case that, on one side tells time, and by swivelling the mechanism, shows the hard steel side. Thus, the Reverso—a simple steel watch with a black dial and Art Deco trimmings—that would include more variations like baton indexes, coloured dials, gold cases and in the 1990s, high complications.
It's a stalwart piece. A timeless icon that’s recognisable by its signature traits: the horizontal gadroons, the triangular lugs, and integrated pivoting case. The blank caseback became a canvas for traditional decorative arts. Jaeger-LeCoultre manufacture is the only establishment that has its in-house gem-setters, enamellers, engravers, and guilloché specialists.
With the Reverso history in mind, Jaeger-LeCoultre introduces nine new models to the Reverso collection. Here are two that stood out to us.
From the technical field, we have a Reverso Tribute Minute Repeater with an entirely spanking new in-house movement: the Calibre 953. Minute repeaters are complicated beasts, especially when you’re fitting them into a rectangular case. Not only does it need to tell time, it has to be a mechanical songbird. The chime’s tonality is measured to ensure that each note sounds with clarity and harmony.
The front dial is a hand-guilloché barley-seed pattern with multiple layers of grand feu enamel in a new teal blue colour. When the dial catches the light at certain angles, it forms an optical illusion of movement. Four hours are needed for the guilloche and another eight for the enamelling.
The reverse dial is open-worked, revealing the intricate guts of the repeater mechanism. Layers of moving parts look like they are floating. Notice the hand-bevelled bridges, its silvery sheen contrasting with the case’s pink gold, which contrasts with the black alligator leather strap. The slider at the side of the watch case activates the chimes.
Each Reverso Tribute Minute Repeater comes with a crafted box that houses six distinct limited-edition Reverso models. This is only limited to 30 pieces.
Jaeger-LeCoultre introduced the Reverso Géographique, as a travel watch in 1998. In 2025, the House releases a world time complication (a new in-house Calibre 834) to the Reverso Tribute for the first time: the Reverso Tribute Geographic.
A sunray finish graces the front dial with a large date display at 12 o’clock and the circular small seconds display at six. Turn the case over and you’re presented with the world time display set on a polished caseback. The city names are engraved directly onto the caseback; set within the aperture, a rotating 24-hour ring indicates day and night; the world map sits in the middle.
Created in-house, the areas representing the oceans on the map are hollowed out with a laser, which leaves the land masses and meridian lines as raised areas. Then, lacquer is applied by hand to fill in the oceans using a syringe. Finally, the finished disc is polished over and over again until, a subtle three-dimensional effect is achieved.
Unlike other world timers, for the Reverso Tribute Geographic, when setting the reference city to 12 o’clock, the city disc rotates while the 24-hour display remains static. It’s operated via a hidden pusher at the top of the case (only accessible when the case is removed from the cradle). Each slide of the pusher moves the ring with a 1-hour jump (if you miss the city, you’ll have to slide 23 more times to course correct).
The Reverso Tribute Geographic available either in steel and 18k pink gold; the latter is limited to 150 pieces.
For more information, visit Jaeger-LeCoultre's website
