As I write this review I am actually freshly back from a visit of the Jaeger-LeCoultremanufacture in Le Sentier, Switzerland. In the watch industry the Jaeger-LeCoultre manufacture is considered a special place because it is a serious factory where both cases and movements are made - which is a rare combo. I got to see a lot of Reverso cases being produced and realized just how complex they are to manufacture. A simple case requires dozens of steps that involve both hand and machine work. The efforts are necessary to achieve the right shape, polish, and of course unique case flipping mechanism.
The original Reverso was produced in 1931 for British polo players stationed in India. The elite group wanted a watch they could wear while playing the game without too much risk of damage. At the time watch crystals were mostly glass and were relatively fragile. The Reverso case was designed to flip over and reveal a polished piece of solid metal to protect the crystal on the other side. The flipping case mechanism has of course been modernized a bit, but retains the same basic system as developed about 80 years ago. Last year Jaeger-LeCoultre fervently celebrated the 80th anniversary of the Reverso which involved the release of many new models, limited editions, and a closer look at the heritage of the watch. For review I had the pleasure of checking out one of the newer pieces - the Grande Reverso Duoface (also sometimes just called "Duo") timepiece
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