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A Historical Watch and a Watch of History: An appeal for the Reverso Virtual Museum

One of THE iconic watch designs is celebrating 80 years; the Reverso still looks as good today as it did when it was first introduced. In the intervening years, the Reverso has been mimicked and copied, but never bettered. It has been the watch of Royalty, pioneers, heroes, and the every man and woman in all of us. What started as a request for a robust case design for British military polo playing officers in India has shown a flexibility in use from messages of love, secrets, accomplishment, to hiding another timezone, a tourbillon, or a chronograph.



As watch enthusiasts, I am sure that at some point in our hobby and interest we have all had a look at one Reverso model that caught our eye. We might not have departed the dealer with the watch, but the Reverso design is so pervasive that one watch in the history would have appealed. Part of the longevity of the Reverso’s design lies in the near perfect proportions of the watch: a design that obeys the golden ratio of phi. An irrational number that is otherwise known as the divine proportion; in an age when every electronic inconvenience will tell us the time, the wish to wear a mechanical watch might be irrational, but the feeling on the wrist is divine. A watch that on the face side is a model of tradition, but the reverse side can hide a different nature.



This year the booth at SIHH for Jaeger LeCoultre was dedicated to the Reverso for the last 80 years. This year’s new release models were both a tribute to the original Reverso, and with the new repeater, a tribute to the research and development at the manufacture in recent years. Over the years, the Reverso case has grown and evolved to include multi-axis tourbillons and grande complications. The watch design has cut a swathe through horological history and with it, had some interesting wrist companions along the way.



As part of the booth, a number of items from the Jaeger LeCoultre history were on show. It was interesting and Jaeger LeCoultre kindly agreed to my photographing some of the pieces. They are testament to the breadth and depth of the history of the Reverso watch. A few photographs to share.



From the birth place of the idea for the Reverso; this one is engraved with the insignia for the Sawaiman Guards, the personal guard of the Maharajah Sawai Man Singh II of Jaipur (from 1933 to 1970). Sawai Man Singh II was a soldier, statesmen, and a noted polo player. He was the last ruling Maharajah, until 1970, when he died from injuries sustained during a polo match in Cirencester, England. He was known as the modernizer of Rajasathan and his death allowed Indira Gandhi to repress the power of India's former Rulers in democratic India.



From 1949, and again from India, this reverse of this Reverso was enameled with the hero Rama, an incarnation of the Hindu divinity Vishnu. Ownership unknown.





Reverso’s were not simply the preserve of royalty from India. European noble houses have also had commissioned Reverso’s. Certainly in keeping with recent cinema (“The King’s Speech”), one of the Reverso’s on display was for Edward VIII from 1937 (the year he was made Duke of Windsor). Edward ascended the Throne in 1936 upon the death of his father (George V), but chose to abdicate being King later in the same year because he“… found it impossible to carry the heavy burden of responsibility and to discharge my duties as king as I would wish to do without the help and support of the woman I love.” Part of Edward’s titles as King was “Defender of the Faith” and his marriage to a divorcee would have been in constitutional opposition to his position as head of the Church of England. Hence, given this watch was engraved as “Edward VIII 1937” along with a picture of St. Edward’s Crown (the coronation crown of English monarchs) it was probably planned to commemorate his being crowned King, but was never used.



A royal, officer, and adventurer, this Reverso belonged to Prince Aage of Denmark (1889 – 1940), and is engraved with the Royal arms on the reverse side. Prince Aage was a soldier, an adventurer, and something of a rebel within his family. At various times he was in the Danish army, the Italian army, and (lastly) the French Foreign Legion. In the French Foreign Legion, Prince Aage attained the rank of lieutenant colonel, and also received France's highest medal, the Légion d'honneur. He died in Morocco in 1940. Before he did, he wrote to the Manufacture to congratulate them on their watch, and that it had worked perfectly in the extreme conditions of southern Morocco. The watch and letter are now part of the Manufacture’s collection.



The famous pioneer aviator Amelia Earhart was the first woman to fly the Atlantic solo. She set a number of speed and distance flying records and the Reverso in the collection that belonged to her commemorated the record breaking flight from Mexico City to New York on May 8th, 1935. Earhart was at the height of her fame; the flight went without a hitch although because of the crowds in Newark when Earhart landed, she had to be careful not to taxi into the throng. It was shortly after a set of seven record breaking flights that Earhart made the fateful decision that she needed a new record: “… one flight which I most wanted to attempt – a circumnavigation of the globe as near its waistline as could be.” Earhart died during the attempt in June 1937.



From 1 July – 12 August 1933, Italo Balbo led a flight of twenty-four flying boats on a round-trip flight from Rome to the Century of Progress in Chicago, Illinois. The flight had seven legs; Orbetello — Amsterdam — Derry — Reykjavík — Cartwright, Labrador — Shediac — Montreal ending on Lake Michigan near Burnham Park. The route of the flight is engraved on the back of the Reverso. While the flight was an achievement, Balbo’s connection with fascism taints the honours that were bestowed after the flight. Mussolini donated a column from Ostia to the city of Chicago; it can still be seen along the Lakefront Trail, a little south of Soldier Field. Chicago renamed Seventh Street "Balbo Drive" and staged a parade in his honour. However, controversy surrounds Balbo’s death; one version has him as the victim of friendly fire as he landed in Tobruk in 1940, the other version is that Mussolini had him shot down for raising a voice against the German-Italian alliance.

History is not simply composed of the great or the good. History is the composition of all of us; what each of us contributes to the tapestry that is the story of what our past has been. History is not dead - it is alive in what each of us contributes. For the first time a watch manufacture has given us the chance to contribute to that history; to stand alongside the likes of Kings and pioneers, statesmen and adventurers, and your fellow collector. It is to be part of history and the contribution of history can only be felt in what we leave as evidence of our being, or collecting in this case. Even the most insignificant of events at first instance can be of greatest importance in retrospect.



[History in a suitcase: the set of movements that have been housed inside the iconic Reverso case; 43 movements in total]

To make the MJLC Reverso Virtual Museum a success, it needs all of us, who own, or owned a Reverso (and have pictures) to enter details on the museum. The story behind it does not have to be a reminder of the crown you missed, or defending the north-west passage in India, or a pioneering expedition into the unknown, it can simply be that the watch was there, and I could not resist owning it. History is for everyone; and hence I humbly request each and every Purist to please share your Reverso story for all. Mine is already there and in some small way contributed.

reverso.jaeger-lecoultre.com #/masterpage/?id=VE

Thanks in advance to one and all.

Andrew H

For Harriet and Georgia. This message has been edited by 219 on 2011-01-25 01:58:42 This message has been edited by amanico on 2011-01-27 02:42:10

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