Ninety years ago, Jaeger-LeCoultre created the Reverso, an ingenious solution for polo players who wished to protect the glass of their watches during the rough and tumble of polo matches. With a swivelling case and distinctive Art Deco lines, it become a classic of 20th-century design.
Sixty years after its birth, the Reverso Soixantième, the first of its name with complications, revealed its full potential, unleashing a sequence of pieces that gave new expression to watchmaking complications including 2016ʼs Reverso Tribute Gyrotourbillon and this yearʼs Reverso Tribute Nonantième.
Exuding refinement and elegance, the Nonantièmeʼs pink gold case with signature gadroons frames a silvered, sunray-brushed dial with applied golden indices and dauphine hands.
A moonphase display is set within the small seconds display at six oʼclock, while a large date display is framed by an applied fi let of pink gold at 12. This signature aesthetic gives no hint of the surprise that awaits on the reverse: an entirely new visual expression of some of watchmaking’s most familiar complications.
Dramatic and captivating, the pink gold caseback with two round apertures arranged like a figure-eight and encircled by gadroons displays a semi-jumping digital hour indication in the smaller aperture recalling the digital displays developed by the Manufacture for wristwatches in the 1930s.
The larger aperture below the hour, minutes are displayed on a rotating disc that is partially concealed by a three-quarter plate lacquered in vivid blue ‒ in the Atelier des Métiers Rares® ‒ and sprinkled with tiny golden stars to depict the night sky. Within the central circle at the centre, an applied golden sun and moon, pass above a horizon, to indicate night or day.
Spacetime
Further expanding the cultural and creative universe of the Manufacture, Jaeger-LeCoultre commissioned celebrated American artist Michael Murphy to explore the relationship between the physical dimensions of space, and the fourth dimension ‒ time.
First exhibited at Watches & Wonders Shanghai, Michael Murphy represented Spacetime through the Nonantième: a three dimensional installation requiring the viewer to change position in order to fully appreciate them.
Fusing classical art-making techniques with digital processes and manual skills, Murphy invented an entirely new formula for rendering two-dimensional images as suspended, three-dimensional mobiles.
Comprising a multitude of objects hanging at various heights and distances, these anamorphic installations appear to change form depending on the viewer’s perspective: from a seemingly random jumble of shapes, a shift of view can coalesce the chaos into a recognisable image
The shape of each of the artwork’s 69 components resembles a familiar part of a watch. However, each is photo-printed with different fragments of movement and dial components. As the viewer walks around the installation, he will discover that the parts appear exactly as in the watch when they are lined up perfectly.
As with the development of a new watch calibre, Murphy’s art requires an intense level of planning and precision. It is an extremely complex process involving 75 steps that must be taken in the right sequence, beginning with the mapping of exactly where in the three dimensions each component must be, in order to create an image that the viewer can understand.
As in a watch movement, if one tiny element is off, the entire work is off. How apt is this for an artistic interpretation of the beauty and precision of time-keeping and time-making?
(Images: Jaeger-LeCoultre)
