JLC Reverso Tourbillon: Vintage Jaeger-LeCoultre Guide

Have been struggling recently with both wanting a tourbillon and finding a lot of the ways in which they’re incorporated (visibly from the front, disrupting the dial lay-out) to be… too loud? Not for me - not always but… often.

But I still wanted one and still wanted me - if not others - to be able to look at it whenever the mood took me. That left a number of brands that still incorporate a “hidden” tourbillon, visible from the back - Lange, Laurent Ferrier, some Glashütte models etc - but many were rare and many were outside the price range. Plus I sort of wanted the cake-and-eating experience of not having to take my watch off.

This coincided with me doing a deeper dive into Reversos - I love the design language and the style but, again, struggled personally with a design that no longer made sense to me on many models (the classic pre-1990s versions where the flip side is plain/engraved - I don’t play polo so…. what is the function of it?).

I still loved the style though and, after buying Nick Foulkes’ beautiful book on the Reversos and doing more of a deep dive into the 90s Soixantieme collection, it all suddenly came together: a Tourbillon from the collection came up at auction and I got it. Rose gold, 42h power reserve and power indicator, limited to 500, sizing smaller than the current “Tributes” (which all works for me).






So this is it: a plain, beautiful guilloché dial and a sapphire caseback showing that Tourbillon in action whenever wanted. A perfect “conference” watch, as Mitch K calls them in his book.

Love it and feel lucky to have it.