JLC Reverso, the well-documented cult watch has become a book

Text Britta Rossander

On January 15th the magnificent volume about Jeager-LeCoutre's cult watch Reverso – also called the Polo watch – was released. The book is written by Nicholas Foulkes, English journalist, author, historian and well-known watch enthusiast.

The Reverso model was born in 1931 just as the Art Deco style peaked. The watch was an answer to the challenge of designing a wristwatch that could take the hard knocks during a match of horse polo. The reversible case was a stroke of luck. The crystal could be protected and on the smooth back it was excellent for engraving a family crest or a message from the giver. Today JLC's atelier makes very personally designed backs at certain customers' request.

With 90 years behind it it has of course gone through many phases of redesign, but the original has always won out. We remember the Reverso Squadra with chronograph from the early 2000s which was a square variant and in my eyes with a swollen appearance instead of elegance.

More than 50 different calibres have we seen pass through the cases and the number of different dials is enormous. The Reverso has had a dial on both sides of the reversible case and complications have been added.

In the book all of this is described among other things through stories about Reverso owners and their relationship to the watch. The book Reverso contains masses of good pictures of both old and new watches and has been produced in collaboration with the publisher Assouline. A must for the JLC enthusiast.