Jaeger-LeCoultre

amanico
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The Inauguration of the ... Reverso Exhibition.

You all know that this year is the 80th Anniversary of an iconic watch, the Reverso.

JLC decided to give a special hommage to this watch.

You had a very nice " avant gout " of the exhibition to come with Andrew's post you can re read with pleasure here:

jlc.watchprosite.com

On the 24th of March, the " Grande Maison " invited PursitsPro for the inauguration of the Reverso Exhibition, and dedicated two rooms to her iconic time keeper.

The first one is more about the roots of this legendary model, while the second allows the visitor to see its developments till our days.

Dizziness...

The first room...



... with some familiar silhouettes:



The first " contact " with the watch is made through some advertisings of different eras ...



The famous " Quiet hours ":



Another early ad ...



A provocative ad: " The snobbest watch of the year ":



Or another excellent one: " It is not necessary to wear a Jaeger-LeCoultre to read the time. After all, we don't drink a Chateau Lafite Rothschild to not be thirsty anymore ".



Let us not forget that the Reverso is a story of Men: Cesar De Trey, who had the idea of such a watch, Alfred Chauvot, who concretized the idea through a patent filed on the 4th of March 1931, and Mr Jacques David LeCoultre, who founded the Spécialités Horlogères Company which can be considered as the cradle of the Reverso, company which will become, 6 years later, in 1937 ... Jaeger- LeCoultre.

Mr Jacques David LeCoultre ( on the left ), mr Cesar De Trey ( on the right ), and the patent of the Reverso:



A wall of Reversos... 63 ( !!!=Reversos gathered in the same wall, from the earlier to some more recent.

The bad thing is that each Reverso has its spot light, which makes the photos almost impossible to take ( but I'm not sure that the visitors will be allowed to take any pictures, here ).



... The frame changed, a few weeks later, to defitinively take the shape of a ... Reverso, a giant one:



I managed to take, with the kind permission and assistance from the Heritage Gallery Team, pictures of some of these Reversos:

For Him... You know well this one, which was used for the Tribute to 1931:



You much less know this Reverso for Ladies... with a superb burgundy laquered dial:





For the greediers of us, a sublime Reverso small second Chocolate, from 1935:



Some salmon dial?





For almost 30 years, The Reverso disapparead from the catalog, to re born in 1982 with this model in stainless steel and gold, which has a particularity: It is more suqared than the others, as you can see on the pictures below:







Some not often seen specimens, now, in white gold:

1995, 25 pieces only for this beauty:



1998, in a confidential distribution:









Some awesome examples of the solutions to personalize your Reverso, with these arms:



... Or of the multiple Central Seconds dials which existed at this time ( we are here somewhere between 1935 and 1937 ) :



The second part of the exhibition is dedicated to the developments, the life of the Reverso, which almost never ceased to change.



Some are entered into History, like those below:

Amelia Earhart's commemorative Reverso:



A racing machine:



The Reverso celebrating the Cinema:



During its 80 years life, an impressive diversity of movements have been used, from the simpler to the most complicated, as shown ni this famous suitcase:





Think about it ... Is there any complication which " escaped " to the Reverso?

Geographique, Minute Repeaters, Perpetual Calendars, Equation of Time, Tourbillons, Chronographs, Celestial... You will see in the windows all these past or modern glories.

If you have the opportunity to go to the Manufacture in the months to come, don't forget to ask them to show you this exhibition, you will live an unforgettable and delicious moment of Horology.

Happy Birthday and Long Live, the Reverso!

Best,

Nicolas.

PS: I would warmly thank the whole JLC Team for their friendly welcome and their disponibility... As always. This message has been edited by amanico on 2011-04-18 00:01:45 This message has been edited by amanico on 2011-04-21 20:50:30

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