Jaeger-LeCoultre: Roots in Instruments & Reverso

All of you will know the history of "The" Icon of JLC, the Reverso,
which originated as a request of Polo playing British Officers in India, who wanted a watch to be
protectable during play, but elegant & functional enough to be worn thereafter or elsewhere,
in more elegant surroundings.

After Cesar de Trey had the idea of a watch with a reversible case,
the filing of the patent by Alfred Chauvot on March 4, 1931,
This same year Cesar de Trey & Jaques David LeCoultre founded the
" Spécialités Horlogères" company, the nursing bed for their creation of the Reverso

The first Reverso was appearing in 1931, as well..
Soon the new by Art Deco design concepted and manufactured watch
became a loved companion and sought after accessoire quite quickly.

At that time the Parisian Edmond Jaeger, whose company was
well established as an instrument maker for cars, planes, boats,
with branches in Geneva, Paris, New York.
But secondly Jaeger was an exclusive supplier of movements to Cartier.
Jacques-David LeCoultre, of the LC Company was the leading supplier of movements,
parts and tools to the watchmaking industry in Switzerland.
LeCoultre produced movements for famous watch houses, such as VC, AP, and IWC.

In 1925 David LeCoultre merged his company with that of Edmond Jaeger.

In agreement with Edmond Jaeger, Jaques-David LeCoultre and successors
were diversifying into aviation and automobile instruments; originally in Le Sentier,
and later these products, whether made in Switzerland, France, England or the US,
would carry the name Jaeger.

These instruments were soon well known, signed Jaeger, with proven performance records
and were quite widely used in a number of cars, with British origin,
such as Bentley Motors, Aston Martin, but also in others from the continent,
such also as Austro Daimler and others.

The first pic- Collage below shows some of these instruments, mounted in a Bentley,
the second one in the very successful Racing car "Torpedo" by Austro -Daimler, from 1929.
LeCoultre and later Jaeger-LeCoultre signings were then reserved just for fine watchmaking,
and exclusively produced in Le Sentier.

BTW, as a side note : It took until 1937, when the merged company of Jaeger LeCoultre
( fused in 1925) issued the Reverso with the JLC name on the dial.

I'll need to stop here, as it's well known and for most, if not all of you it might be redundant ..

Why taking the long story ? - just to frame some docs I had found, and to re-look a bit
into the part of Jaeger and its connections to LeCoultre and JLC.

Some time ago, I had the opportunity to acquire some original, authentic ads
and newspaper pages from these early times, discussed above,
when Jaeger and LeCoultre still were 2 separate companies, which,
however soon worked together on the Reverso project and before had resulted
in the fused company of Jaeger LeCoulre.

At one point in time, I decided to frame these ads and authentic newspaper
pages (and to later hang them in one of our rooms).
- What a nice surprise to realize that these were actually from the years 1927
and 1931 (!).

Also I was inspired by the recent great essay of Andrew H (219) about " Style endures !.." about one
epitome of icons by JLC , the Reverso, whereby roots and beginnings, were exactly in these years..

Thus, I just wanted to humbly share these following few pics, as for me, they represent
the tides of time, which are touching us here and now..

Funny, sometimes also, the backsides : such as here ads for amunition for hunting, and household items..

Hope you were not bored by these dwellings and maybe liked
the little excursion, into the years, where much of (J)LC history has been written..

Nice and rewarding to find some traces, sometimes..

Best, hs

PS: Credits to a number of reviews and essays here in the forum by Nicolas, 219, jaw, and comments by Clavi, and others, ( sorry, can't remember all) and reports & visits of these at the Reverso Museum & Heritage Gallery This message has been edited by hs111 on 2014-05-15 06:14:52