Jaeger-LeCoultre

Gus7
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Enamelling a Reverso - a story

Last year I was planning my retirement. I had moved from my home in Scotland  to Hong Kong some years previously with a mission of opening and establishing our company’s office here in Hong Kong and thereafter also in Shanghai. These years have been a mix of great pleasure on both a personal and professional level as well as periods of great frustration and worry as events of the last few years have undoubtedly taken their toll. However, this is undeniably a city I love and that will always have a fond place in my heart and I knew that as I came to retire I wanted to mark it somehow.

What better I thought than having one of my Reversos engraved or enamelled? The challenge then was to come up with an idea that while simple in its conceptualisation would be meaningful and very personal to me. I have been extraordinarily fortunate to have had a great relationship with JLC over more than 20 years and the team here in Hong Kong have always been good to me. I worked with Tim, one of the boutique managers who I have considered a friend now for nearly 7 years, on a design. We bandied around a few ideas and finally landed on one that I felt best paid my respects to this city and my journey from Scotland to Hong Kong and would always remind me of these years. These two photos hopefully evidence that conceptualisation adequately. The intertwining of a representation (not necessarily a precise replica) of the flags of each country coupled with the traditional Chinese characters representing my name which is what I used on my business cards alongside my western name. (for info, the traditional Chinese characters are very similar in fact to those in simplified Chinese and which I obviously used when working in Shanghai or Beijing).

Hopefully you will agree that JLC have done an exceptional job! However, that is not really the whole story.

Once we had settled on a design I was subsequently humbled and speechless when I was advised by the CEO of JLC here in Hong Kong and by Tim that they wanted this engraving and enamelling to be their gift to me to mark my retirement and to cement our friendship over the years. Honestly it is hard to convey how this made me feel. There was no need for them to do this, and no expectation on my part. It makes the whole process and the resulting outcome even more meaningful and I know that they have done  this not expecting this public acknowledgement but I have said to them I really had to write up this experience! I know that Catherine and her team in Le Sentier did everything to make this happen as quickly as possible and I thank them as well for everything and look forward to the day I can visit again with my burgundy Reverso on my wrist, now unique to me! 

If you have any thoughts of having your Reverso engraved and enamelled I must encourage you to do so. I can’t believe it has taken me so long to do this and now plan also on having a different engraving only done on my green Tribute to Reverso.