Description

The dress watch. People see it before your clothes. Generic is unacceptable. A social lubricant and a quiet communicator of your seriousness and taste, the Jaeger Reverso's timeless Deco craft will be a lifetime source of pleasure to own and use. Jaeger developed and released the Reverso in 1931 in response to complaints of shattered watch crystals by British and Indian polo players in India. The classic and original Reverso is a single-face mechanical, hand-wound watch that flips 180 degrees in its half-shell to shelter its crystal and put its metal back to the hazards of play. Consider that blank rectangle of polished metal a canvas for the engraver's or enamellor's art. Reversos can do double duty as sport watches (of course! inspired by polo) and dress watches. And now they come in a variety of metals, trim, sizes and styles, from the trim 19mm wide ladies' version, and tidy 26mm original, to newer chunkier iterations pushing 30 mm wide. If you can only have one, consider the Duo -- two different watch faces able to track two different time zones, running off one movement.

When I was a kid beginning to read the New Yorker at 8 years old, the Reverso ads capitvated me. I thought it was the coolest watch ever, and vowed to buy one. A few decades of more urgent expenses intervened, but I finally got my Reverso Duo about 30 years after my first pangs for it. This is a watch that hit the market during a dark time, and eventually better conditions prevailed. Owning one is a reminder the same thing will be true again. (via Jaeger LeCoultre)

Updated Jul 11, 2006