Alvin Wong 18 October 2016

A Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso on your mind? Start with this awesome ladies’ offering.

Looking at how gracefully the Reverso collection has aged, coupled with the fact that it has an innately refined disposition to begin with, it may still surprise those who are new to Jaeger-LeCoultre that the original models were actually sports watches, created to withstand the rigours of polo playing.

However, the Reverso’s iconic reversible case, conceived to protect the dial against accidental blows from the mallet, ball or any other projectile that occur as a result of horseback-related sports, has been utilised for more cultured purposes over the years; such as customised engraving or enamel work on the case back, or in the case of the Duetto Moon, a separate dial that lends the watch stylistic versatility as well as a touch of mechanical sophistication.

The 85th anniversary version, the Reverso One Duetto Moon, is a class act. (For the record, the Reverso One collection is dedicated to women’s offerings. Other 85th anniversary commemorative collections include the ‘Classic’, which features minor tweaks to the evergreen Reverso profile, and ‘Tribute’, which takes the original's dimensions and loads it with new complications.)

But back to the Reverso One Duetto Moon. Armed with a manual-wound movement that displays the hour and minutes back-to-back on separate dials, the watch is perfect for ladies who desire a minor twist to their mechanical watches.

On one side, a sunburst guilloche dial provides the backdrop to the time display – a forthright expression of the Art Deco aesthetic that has been entwined with the Reverso since its birth. On the opposite dial, the hour and minute hands are joined by a moon phase display, set against a gorgeous blue or chestnut hued paillonné mother-of-pearl dial that shimmers ever so slightly to evoke stars on a clear night sky. Despite the watch’s mechanical dexterity, its movement is rather thin, sitting snugly in a case that is just 10mm thick.

One also cannot overstate the subtle glamour of the Reverso, perhaps most apparent in its feminine renditions. Whether in stainless steel or pink gold case, paired with leather strap or matching metal bracelet, the Reverso One Duetto Moon may express a slightly different style depending on which dial is deployed, but the watch’s intrinsic grace and beauty is indisputable.

Alvin Wong

Ex Editor-In Chief

Alvin promises not to be a douche when talking about watches. He may have scoured the Basel and Geneva watch fairs for the past 15 years, and played an instrumental role to the growth of Singapore's pioneering horological and men's lifestyle publications, but the intrepid scribe seeks to learn something new with each story he writes.