The Big Flip: Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso turns 80
By Straight-Six, published on 4 March 2011
There’s a wonderful line delivered by Benecio del Toro’s character (Fred Fenster) in Usual Suspects , whereby he tells the cops interrogating him: “He’ll flip ya. He’ll flip ya fer real.” It’s enough to put us in stiches, laughing heartily till we spill our Burgundy all over our bloated bellies. But the reason why we cast our minds back to a lazy Saturday movie night is a flip of a different kind. Not a metaphorical one, but a mechanical flip that you can still hear on wrists all over the cultivated world today…
Happy 80th birthday, dearest Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso!!
For it was on March 4 at precisely 1315 that René-Alfred Chauvot strolled into the Paris-based National Industrial Property Institute (INPI)) and officially patented his invention for a “wristwatch which can slide on its base and flip over on itself.” In November 1931, after having secured all the rights to the invention of the Reverso from Alfred Chauvot, together with Jacques-David LeCoultre, César de Trey founded a company called Spécialités Horlorgères, with the aim of manufacturing and selling this revolutionary flipping watch.
This really was a flip that would resonate across the decades, successfully surviving different sizes, complications, wars, aggressive polo matches and, worst of all, the ownership of your typical hard-drinking British lout (take a bow, Prodigal Fool!).
It truly is extraordinary to us how the Reverso has remained utterly timeless, simple, elegant and still totally relevant to watch lovers and Prodigal munchkins everywhere. And while Jaeger-LeCoultre have created library-sized tributes to their seminal horological contribution (those guys can write and write…), we want to get straight to the point: the Reverso just may hold the title of the world’s greatest wristwatch.
Yeah, we just lost all hopes of any other brand sponsoring the damned site. But hey! We thought it more important to be honest and true to our two readers and together dream about the mechanical flip that will no doubt be with us all for another 80 years.
Reverso, baby, you flip us fer real. Happy 80th birthday!
The Big Flip: Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso turns 80
The Reverso, perhaps the world’s most iconic watch design, turns 80 this year. And Straight-Six is only too happy to give it the standing ovation it so richly deserves.
This section is supported by the patronage of:
13 Responses to “The Big Flip: Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso turns 80”
-
Can anyone think of a design more iconic, more enduring than the Reverso? I can’t.
-
Straight-Six
5 March 2011
How about the Rolex Submariner…?
-
It’s iconic. For sure. But how many other watches look like a Sub? Now, how many other watches look like a Reverso? You see where I’m going with this…
-
-
Straight-Six
5 March 2011
How about the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak?
-
I refer my learned friend to the answer I gave some moments ago.
-
-
Straight-Six
5 March 2011
How about I stop shooting my own post in the foot??
-
How about I stop rising to it??
-
-
Chris I
5 March 2011
“the Reverso just may hold the title of the world’s greatest wristwatch.” A loaded statement, for sure.
World’s Greatest Wristwatch? My vote is for the Submariner. It is a sports watch that is equally at home with a suit. Its tough, good looking and water proof to 300m. n short, it does everything you could ask of a watch. Oh and it’s a Rolex – arguably the world’s greatest watch brand.
-
Frank T
6 March 2011
“World’s greatest wristwatch …”. It takes a brave man indeed to make such a bold declaration among so many with such cherished prejudices. But one could make a case for it and I may accept. My cherished prejudice is, however, the PP Calatrava, in particular the reference 96 and the reference 2526. So iconic as “dress watches” that they’re never noticed on the wrist. Which may remove them from contention in some circles … does the “World’s greatest wristwatch” need to be so distinctive that it draws comments from others in polite company? The Reverso does not achieve this obnoxiously, many of the sport watches do.
-
Ivan Y
7 March 2011
Wasn’t Jeremy Renner wearing a Reverso at the Oscars this year? It was hard to tell since they didn’t do a closeup.
Anyhow, was JLC a first with a reversible watch or just the first with a successful one? Universal Geneve claims that they released a model (Cabriolet) in 1928 that was reversible (different mechanism though), but quick Google search hasn’t turned anything up.
-
Straight-Six
8 March 2011
Ivan,
Heard from a pretty reliable source that indeed another brand pipped JLC to the post with reversible watch, but no-one seems to be interested enough to go digging. A bit like the story about the Omega not actually being worn on the moon, but rather staying put inside the lunar module…
-
-
Feature Friday: Authentic Jaeger Le Coultre Master Tourbillion 165.24.20 « Raymond Lee Jewelers Blog
15 April 2011
[...] The Big Flip: Jaeger LeCoultre Reverso turns 80 (theprodigalguide.com) [...]
My ZING net : website flipping
5 March 2011
[...] Make sure to also read: http://theprodigalguide.com/2011/03/04/the-big-flip-jaeger-lecoultre-reverso-turns-80/ Tags: blog flipping, Blog Flipz Review, website [...]