Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Personal Evolution

I think most of us afflicted with this crazy sickness, I mean hobby . .. illness, or should I say passion . . .will find our tastes evolving over time.  Certainly some amongst us develop a keen eye and insight for a certain brand or model, a certain era from a particular manufacture or some other narrow rabbit hole overflowing with passionate debate (and often high prices) in that little island of the collecting universe.  But overall I've observed an evolution of change in many where personal taste evolves with an understanding of what one will actually wear and enjoy (no sense in things sitting in the box after all) . .  .and combined  with an ever-expanding knowledge base of brand history as well as brand evolution. Certainly JLC has done an exceptional job in recent years of echoing their history while evolving their future. We see that narrow balance of brand evolution fail so many times in both mass and luxury goods where brands dilute their hard won equity with more and more extensions or fail to innovate and ride their one great product into oblivion.  So it's a respect for this innovation along with a continually growing knowledge of JLC history that has brought me to the brand in recent years.

But continuing the personal evolution a bit further, I also know my own tastes. And that has been squarely against squares . . .no rectangles, no squares, no triangles, no nothing   I've grown up with sport watches thick, thin, big, small, plastic, steel and cheap to unfortunately not so cheap . . .but it's always been oval and round.  Well as we know one cannot study the history of JLC and not bump into the Reverso.  I've seen it . . ..I respected it . . . but i just knew it wouldn't be for me.  And over time I've continued to collect and wear watches in the same style and evolution . . .modern Panerai evolved to PreV . . .modern Rolex evolved to vintage . . ..and JLC research evolved into the Incursion and DSA.  But slowly the ice around the Reverso also began to thaw and I thought  . . . hmmmm  . . . .could I have been wrong?  A business trip several months ago to LA of course led to a stop at OP and JLC to see my favorite enablers, and a few phone calls with a good friend and confidant also followed . . . .and my first Reverso was put on order.

But if I was making such a big style evolution for me, I wanted to make the right choice as I knew it would be only this one.  So with that, I knew it had to be one that shared some heritage and style with some of the good people you get to meet in this little corner of our world.  I'd like to give my best congratulations and kudos to the Ceniceros family as well as to JLC for such an outstanding collaboration and final result.  I'm thrilled with this piece personally, but so happy to see this project come to fruition and the surely mutual respect and support between the family and JLC to complete the development.  It's a fantastic mix of classic design and art, and a great new change of pace for me.  The case size and shape is arguably one of the most comfortable I've ever worn, and definitely made me rethink some of the clunkers sitting in the watch box.  So again my congrats and thanks and a few pics of the arrival . . . .








And on to the bonus part.  . . .something about JLC triggers other events in the cosmos. Each time I've been waiting on a JLC, some other piece I've been waiting on also happens to show up at virtually the same time.  While a double box arrival is certainly exciting, it's always quite a challenge on the watch budget! . . . .but in this instance I'd managed to move out a lot of what wasn't seeing the light of day already, so I had a bit of a war chest built up for the right time.  Along with my evolving taste into rectangles . . . . I'd also made the leap to . . . . .as I whisper it hushed tones . . . . .gold! I know yellow gold to many conjures up a heavy set gentleman with a pinkie ring at  resort in Boca or a cheesy new oil money billionare looking for some bling. But to me it is memories of my grandfather. He world a gold watch his whole life and in my world essentially acted as my father, and it was that watch that first gave me an appreciation of watches as something to value and build a relationship with through life . . .. as well as be something to continue to pass along to the next generation.  So I had settled on gold and am at a point I can make it work . . ..or rather could care less about anyone who thinks it doesn't I guess . . .and set about to find the exact watch for me.  Fortunately in a few exchanges of emails and calls, this one landed as well.  So a bit heavier metal than the rectangle, but quite a tag team arrival for me . . .






If you've hung in this far, thanks for listening to an update on my watch journey . . ..and good luck in your continued passion and knowledge evolution !