Latest Review
This year was all about the Reverso for Jaeger-LeCoultre. At Watches & Wonders this year, the watchmaker’s watchmaker unveiled a total of nine new Reverso novelties, capturing every expression of the iconic watch. From simple to complicated, highly technical to craft oriented, and in just about every material you’d want to see, it was a stunning output, and truly impressive to see them all up close and personal.
We decided to set ourselves up with the impossible task of picking our favorites from the new crop of Reverso novelties introduced last week. Not an easy decision at all, but somehow, across these picks, the team has captured the breadth of the Reverso, or at least started to.
Be sure to let us know your favorite among the new Reversos in the comments below, especially if it was one we didn’t happen to select.
Zach Weiss
Like many watch enthusiasts, the Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso is on my eventual hit list. An iconic dress watch, its signature reversible case design gives it not just a unique look but also function and character. And to that end, I’ve always felt that, if I were to pick one up, I’d have to go for one of the Duoface models, essentially turning one watch into two. Last year, I got the opportunity to spend some time with the newest version of the Reverso Tribute Duoface in rose gold, which left an impression on me. Though it wasn’t the most compact Reverso, the two sides, one with the iconic art deco “tribute” design and a small seconds, and the other a more energetic, radial luxurious burst of markers with a 24-hour sub dial, made for an exciting pairing. But, as it was rose gold, the price tag was around $25k.
At Watches & Wonders 2025, JLC released that same Reverso Tribute Duoface Small Seconds design, but in steel, bringing the watch’s price and formality down. Perfect. Available in either black or blue for the small seconds side, paired with a monochromatic silver for the flip side, both looked genuinely fantastic. The silver side, wrapped in matching polished steel, has an appealing architectural quality. That said, the black dial would probably be my preferred version as it just feels like a proper, if conservative, choice for a Reverso. Regardless, thanks to the steel case, it felt less like a dress-only affair and more of a daily-if-business casual design.
Priced at $13,700, the new Reverso Tribute Duoface Small Seconds seems fair, if not a screaming value, given the two-in-one nature of the design. After all, it really is like having two $6,850, in-house, luxury watches in one.
Kat Shoulders
Jaeger-LeCoultre is typically one of my favorite appointments at Watches & Wonders. Not only is their photo room usually primo for awesome pictures, the watches themselves always leave me stunned. I’ll admit that when I went into the meeting I hadn’t really picked out a favorite of the bunch – there were so many Reverso’s this year it was tough to pick just one. But as soon as I laid eyes on the new Tribute Monoface Small Seconds, that was immediately my favorite. I was extremely giddy for the other photographer in the room to wrap up his shots so I could get hands-on with it. There’s something so special about the warmth of pink gold paired with that finely grained golden dial —it’s vintage charm with a modern take. The high polished indices are super easy to read at a glance even in dark light.
But what really caught my eye was the Milanese mesh bracelet in matching 18k pink gold. It hugged my wrist perfectly and was incredibly elegant. Having also seen it on a man’s wrist, this one is certainly calling everyone’s name. As someone who typically gravitates towards sports watches I’m not too far in left field in picking this one as the Reverso was originally created for polo playing. So this watch does have a true sports heritage but of course, is also just classy as hell. They’ve made this icon feel exceedingly elevated without it coming off as too flashy. Can an all gold watch be understated? I think this one can. This new Reverso is a reminder of how timeless design can evolve without losing its soul.
Zach Kazan
If there’s one thing everyone knows about me, it’s that I don’t really care about horses. So maybe it’s a bit of a surprise that my favorite Reverso from this year’s crop of new novelties is the Reverso Tribute Enamel ‘Shahnameh,’ which is actually a series of four timepieces, each in a super limited run of just ten examples. The watches tie the Reverso’s origins as a watch made for polo players to the Shahnameh, a Persian epic poem that charts the history of the Persian people. Specifically, JLC is drawing from a specific edition of the Shahnameh dedicated to Shah Tahmasp and presented in 1568 to Ottoman sultan Selim II. That edition contained 258 traditional Persian miniature paintings. In Persian culture, many of these paintings included images of horses, and JLC artisans have recreated four of those paintings for this run of watches.
Ok, so, lots of history here, and these watches are a great example of how culture is reflected over centuries in watchmaking traditions. And if you’re a scholar of Persian history and culture (or a horse lover) these watches will no doubt have great meaning. They’re also, of course, incredible examples of craftsmanship, and stunningly beautiful in person. Each watch combines a total of four artisanal crafts: miniature enamel painting, grand feu enameling, guillochage (each dial is has a distinct guilloche pattern created with a traditional rose engine) and paillonnage (a rare decorative enamelling technique that introduces thin gold leaf between layers of fired enamel).
The complexity of the handwork here is absolutely mindblowing. Miniaturizing the paintings themselves to scale for the small Reverso caseback is itself a major challenge, but then each caseback is painted by hand in enamel, with paillonnage techniques incorporated artistically throughout. We had the opportunity to view these tiny enamel paintings under magnification in our meeting, and they quite literally take your breath away – there is an incredible amount of depth and detail.
This year’s Watches & Wonders releases may have skewed broadly toward the commercial and away from enthusiast driven releases and “wonders,” but you only had to step into the JLC booth and look at these casebacks under a loupe to find something truly spectacular. Jaeger-LeCoultre
