Jaeger-LeCoultre has blessed their iconic Reverso with every sort of complication in recent years – except for a chronograph. That has changed at Watches & Wonders Geneva 2023, with “the watchmaker’s watchmaker” bringing chronos back to the Reverso… With vengeance.
The concept of a Reverso chronograph is nothing new – Jaeger-LeCoultre has made a few over the years – but the new Reverso Tribute Chronograph is easily the most elegant and interesting one they’ve ever made.
From the obverse side, it looks like a normal Reverso Tribute, which is to say very nice: baton hour markers, Dauphine hands and a peripheral chemin de fer minutes track, combined with a sunray dial. But it hides a secret. Flip it over and you’ll find a dedicated chronograph side with an eye-catching, high-tech skeletonised dial.
It’s not your regular-degular chronograph, either. At 6 o’clock, it’s got a retrograde minutes chrono counter. When you reset the chrono, it’ll jump back to 0 at a speed faster than the human eye can register. That’s pretty sick.
The Reverso has always had a dual character… And that’s not just because of its rotating case. When it was first released in 1931, it was devised as a polo player’s watch: its rotating case could shield its dial from the roughhousing of sports. However, it’s since transcended its sporting origins to become one of the most popular dress watches on the market; its Art Deco design has proven to be utterly timeless.
In that sense, the Reverso Tribute Chronograph is the ultimate dress watch/sports watch. Its chronograph side, with its exposed dial, is incredibly sporty – but then, if you need something more demure, you can flip that back to the time-telling side, which is just classic, dressy Reverso.
It’s totally Jekyll and Hyde and totally cool. Find out more at JLC’s online boutique here.