11 Aug 2025
Episode 9 of Watch the Icon is live — and we are going hands-on with the most elegant party trick in Swiss watchmaking.
This week, Sofia Brontvein unpacks the story of the Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso — the Art Deco rectangle that swivels to shield its dial, then returns, unruffled, to tell the time as if nothing happened.
Born in 1931 to protect British officers’ watches on the polo fields of India, the Reverso began as pure practicality. But almost instantly, it became something more: a geometric statement piece, a canvas for engraving, and a dual-personality design that could slip from sport to soirée without missing a beat.
Over the decades, it has disappeared, reappeared, gained extra dials, and hosted some of Jaeger-LeCoultre’s most intricate complications — all while keeping its proportions and those triple gadroons exactly where they belong.
Here are five things you (probably) did not know about the Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso — unless you have been flipping them since the 1930s:
1. It was designed to survive a polo match. A cracked crystal in India sparked the idea: a case that turns over to hide its dial from stray mallets. Problem solved — with style.
2. Its reverse side became an artistic playground. From enamel miniatures to engraved love notes, the flip side has carried more secrets than most safe-deposit boxes.
3. It nearly vanished. By the 1950s, the Reverso was out of production — considered old-fashioned. It took a visionary revival in the 1980s to bring it back for good.
4. It has worn more than one face — literally. Dual-dial versions let you track another time zone, or simply change mood, without taking it off your wrist.
5. It is still made entirely in-house. From movement to case, every Reverso is born in Le Sentier — proof that heritage and innovation can share the same address.
Listen now
Come for the polo story, stay for the quiet genius of a watch that has nothing to prove — yet proves it anyway.
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