JAEGER-LECOULTRE Grande Taille
270.8.54 “Duoface”

In 1931, René-Alfred Chauvot officially patented his invention of a “wristwatch which can slide on its base and flip over on itself”. The Reverso watch was born. It all started during the winter of 1930-1931. While travelling in India, the Swiss businessman and watch collector César de Trey attended a polo match at a club of British army officers. One of these officers challenged de Trey to create a watch model robust enough to resist to a polo match. César de Trey discussed the idea with Jacques-David LeCoultre, the then owner of the LeCoultre manufacture, who could provide the movements for the new watch. LeCoultre appointed the firm Jaeger S.A. for the creation of the reversible case, which in turn contracted the French designer René-Alfred Chauvot, the actual inventor of the unique slide and flip mechanism. The result was an elegant watch with a dial that could flip, protecting it from shocks while offering a case back with a generous surface that could be used for personalisation. The original Reverso case was 38 mm long x 24 mm large. The dial of the original model featured only hours and minutes hands. Then in 1934, LeCoultre introduced a version with small seconds counter at six o’clock.

In 1937 Jaeger S.A. and LeCoultre merged officially becoming Jaeger-LeCoultre. Representing an elegant and sophisticated response to a technical challenge, the Reverso established itself as a great Art Deco classic constantly inspiring the watchmakers, artists and inventors of the Manufacture Jaeger-LeCoultre to reinterpret the back of the watch.

Unfortunately, after World War II, with the mode switching to round watches, the symbol of the Art Deco was somehow disregarded compared to previous years. In the late 60s, the invasion of Japanese quartz watches put mechanical watches on the back burner for a while.

Luckily, an Italian watch dealer noticed some unused Reverso cases at the Manufacture during a visit in 1972. He bought all of the remaining stock (200 empty cases), had movements installed and sold them all in Italy. Confident that Reverso’s re-launch would be a success, he convinced the brand to use only mechanical movements in its models.

Finally, in 1982 the Reverso was revived in a line of watches that housed mostly quartz movements. In 1985, Jaeger-LeCoultre presented the first-ever water-resistant Reverso case. This required a complete makeover to offer unprecedented wearing comfort and guarantee total security in pivoting.

In 1991, the Reverso 60ème launched the era of limited editions of Reverso models with complications. Framed by a large-size 18 ct pink gold case, the solid silver guilloché dial conceals a hand-wound Jaeger-LeCoultre Calibre 824 with a power-reserve and date hand. Other 500-piece limited editions soon followed: a tourbillon in 1993, a minute repeater in 1994, a retrograde chronograph in 1996, a dual time zone in 1998 and a perpetual calendar in the year 2000.

Since then, many variations of materials, dimensions, complications and dials have been commercialized by the brand, through standard production or limited series.