Ninety years ago, the Swiss luxury watchmaker Jaeger-LeCoultre released its groundbreaking Reverso: a watch whose face could flip around within a cradle to expose the durable caseback and thus protect its delicate components from the rigors of polo (and all the many other non-polo-related rigors of the world). On the occasion of the anniversary of that 1931 legend, the brand now presents an astonishingly complex, remarkably exclusive descendant under its Hybris Mechanica line: the Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Hybris Mechanica Calibre 185.
This stunner—the Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Quadriptyque—is the world’s first four-faced wristwatch, an innovation achieved with both a double-faced case and a double-faced cradle. Jaeger-LeCoultre is releasing a scant 10 of these timepieces, six months in the making, and associated with no fewer than a dozen patents.
Among the superlatives of the Reverso Quadriptyque? In brief, a tour from dial-to-dial reveals that the first face showcases the hour, minute, tourbillon, instantaneous perpetual calendar, grade date, day, month, leap year, and night and day indicator. The second dial offers a jumping digital hour display, minutes, and minute repeater. The third face shows the moon phases in the Northern Hemisphere as well as the draconic lunar cycle (to show the height of the moon) and the anomalistic lunar cycle — month and year. The fourth face shows the moon phases in the Southern hemisphere.
Throw in the breakthrough of seamless chime, a Recto face including a flying tourbillon at 7 o’clock, and a perpetual calendar, in addition to other fine features. The Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Hybris Mechanica Calibre 185 comes in an exceptional presentation box with a built-in mechanism that allows the wearer to quickly and intuitively set all the calendar and astronomical displays of the watch after a period of being unworn.
While on the subject of new watch releases, check out the 2021 Piaget Collection.
