Source: https://myreversostory.com/engraving
Summary: Initials, portraits, landmarks and lacquered names: how collectors personalised the back of their Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso, the process and the timelines.
Updated: 2026-09-30
Publisher: My Reverso Story (https://myreversostory.com), an independent collector archive, not affiliated with Jaeger-LeCoultre.

Guide

# Personalising the back of a Reverso.

What collectors in this archive put on the second face of their watch, how the work was done, and how long it took — in their own words, story by story.

Yes, the back of a Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso can be personalised: engraved, lacquered or enamelled. Collectors in this archive have had the manufacture put initials, portraits, patterns, landmarks and names on the case back, and the documented work took from several weeks to about three months.

By the My Reverso Story curators · Updated 30 September 2026 · Drawn from 19 personalised collector stories

## Why the Reverso has a blank back

The Reverso was invented in 1931 to protect its glass on the polo field: the case turns over, and a solid metal back takes the knocks. That back was engineered only to survive impact, but owners saw a canvas in it within a few years. Every Reverso still leaves the workshop with its back blank, which means no two ever have to end up the same.

## What collectors put on the back

The personalised Reversos in this archive fall into a handful of kinds. Each links to the owner's full story.

| Kind | On the back | Story |
| --- | --- | --- |
| A family initial | The last-name initial, so the watch can pass to a son | [Randy Kamin](https://myreversostory.com/stories/randy-kamin-first-reverso) |
| Initials | The owner's own initials, added six years after purchase | [Farhan Hussain](https://myreversostory.com/stories/farhan-son) |
| A child's name | A daughter's name in lacquered lettering, ordered a week after her birth | [Farhan Hussain](https://myreversostory.com/stories/farhan-daughter) |
| Initials and a birth date | A first child's initials and birth date, promised on a honeymoon | [@decowatches](https://myreversostory.com/stories/decowatches-son) |
| A family portrait | A great-great-grandfather, from a sketch by the Russian Impressionist Leonid Pasternak | [Paul Stewart](https://myreversostory.com/stories/paul-stewart-portrait) |
| A figure of faith | The Gujarati saint Jalaram Bapa, in enamel and engraving | [Roni Madhvani](https://myreversostory.com/stories/roni-jalaram) |
| A pattern | A fleur-de-lis design, since repeated with small variations on four Reversos in the same collection | [Mitch & Linda Katz](https://myreversostory.com/stories/mitch-chocolate-engraving) |
| A city, told privately | Istanbul as tea, simit, seagulls and the Galata Tower, not a postcard skyline | [Edi, Deni & Brion Shipoli](https://myreversostory.com/stories/shipoli-istanbul) |
| An artwork | Lee Lawrie's *Wisdom* from 30 Rockefeller Plaza, with its inscription | [Taylor Wos](https://myreversostory.com/stories/taylor-wos-wisdom) |
| A passion | A 1964 Gibson ES-335 guitar and Art Deco initials, in lacquered engraving | [@decowatches](https://myreversostory.com/stories/decowatches-gibson) |
| An institution, abstracted | A university's green and gold as an Art Deco floral motif, not a logo | [A DC Watch Enthusiast](https://myreversostory.com/stories/george-mason-flower) |
| A commission | His own engraving in place of a limited edition's planned enamel painting | [Mitch & Linda Katz](https://myreversostory.com/stories/mitch-goodbye-wave) |
| A historic signature | A 1930s back engraved with a diplomat's signature and the date 29·X·934 | [Sarp Vahabi](https://myreversostory.com/stories/sarp-titulescu) |

## How the process worked

No two commissions here ran the same way, but the documented ones share a sequence:

1. **Settle the idea.** Several owners waited: one couple wore their new watch blank for months until the right idea came; another owner waited years.
2. **Bring reference material.** One collector photographed a family sketch, plus a second shot framing the detail to use; another brought a pattern found online; a third had a jeweller design three options.
3. **See mock-ups.** Working from the photographs, Jaeger-LeCoultre came back with a couple of mock-ups showing how the portrait would fit the small rectangle.
4. **Approve and hand over the watch.** The watch goes to Switzerland; for a new watch the boutique sends it once a piece is available.
5. **Inspect the result.** One owner found a small section of stippling unfinished a month after delivery; the watch went back to Switzerland and returned complete.

Sources: [the portrait engraving](https://myreversostory.com/stories/paul-stewart-portrait), [the fleur-de-lis engraving](https://myreversostory.com/stories/mitch-chocolate-engraving), [the Istanbul engraving](https://myreversostory.com/stories/shipoli-istanbul), [the lacquered name](https://myreversostory.com/stories/farhan-daughter).

## How long it took

| Commission | Documented time |
| --- | --- |
| [Fleur-de-lis pattern adapted to the rectangle](https://myreversostory.com/stories/mitch-chocolate-engraving) | Several weeks; a second, quick trip back to finish a missing section |
| [Portrait from a family sketch](https://myreversostory.com/stories/paul-stewart-portrait) | About three months in all, including mock-ups and approval |
| [A daughter's name in lacquer](https://myreversostory.com/stories/farhan-daughter) | Ordered January 2022; the watch first had to become available, then went to Switzerland |
| [Enamel and engraved portrait](https://myreversostory.com/stories/roni-jalaram) | Around four decades ago, when requests travelled between Uganda and Switzerland without email |

## Engraving, lacquer and enamel

**Engraving** cuts the design into the metal; most personalised backs here are engraved. **Lacquer** adds colour: one collector chose lacquered lettering for a daughter's name, another a lacquered engraving of a guitar. **Enamel** is the rarest choice. One collector asked for an enamel portrait of Jalaram Bapa and received a combination of enamel and engraving instead, and came to love it more than the portrait first imagined.

Metal matters too. The same pattern cut into different metals comes out subtly different, because each responds differently under the engraver's hand — which is how one collector's four fleur-de-lis backs each ended up unique.

## Keeping a design your own

A design can stay yours. Jaeger-LeCoultre told one collector that a fleur-de-lis engraving would be reserved for that collector’s watches, and when a second request for the same pattern reached the engraving department, the work was stopped until the manufacture confirmed the client was the same person ([the story](https://myreversostory.com/stories/mitch-my-engraving)).

The manufacture also said no when a request went too far: the same collector asked for “Piece Unique” to be engraved on a commissioned watch, and it declined ([the story](https://myreversostory.com/stories/mitch-goodbye-wave)).

## Manufacture or independent engraver?

On a new watch, the collectors here had the manufacture do the cutting. When the Istanbul jeweller Sevan Bıçakçı agreed to design an engraving for a new steel Reverso, he preferred that Jaeger-LeCoultre carry it out, so that there would be no issue with the watch or its warranty — and he designed it himself instead ([the story](https://myreversostory.com/stories/shipoli-istanbul)).

## Choosing what goes on the back

Advice that recurs across these stories, in the collectors' own terms:

- **Avoid the postcard.** One couple ruled out every famous landmark and chose the everyday memory instead: tea, simit and seagulls by the Bosphorus.
- **Take a detail, not the whole.** Rather than reproduce a full sketch, one collector chose the part showing his ancestor.
- **Think about who inherits it.** Initials, a family initial and a child's name recur because the watch is meant to be handed down.
- **Subtle can be more personal.** One owner turned a university's colours into an Art Deco floral motif rather than engrave its logo, so that to anyone else it is simply decorative art.
- **Waiting is fine.** More than one owner wore the watch blank until the right idea arrived.

## The first engraved Reversos

Personalising the back is as old as the watch. Pièces uniques in this archive show it happening within the first few years:

- [The Balbo Reverso](https://myreversostory.com/pieces-uniques/balbo-reverso) (1933), commemorating Italo Balbo's transatlantic formation flight.
- [Prince Aage of Denmark's Reverso](https://myreversostory.com/pieces-uniques/prince-aage-of-denmark-reverso) (1934).
- [The Amelia Earhart Reverso](https://myreversostory.com/pieces-uniques/amelia-earhart-reverso) (1935), engraved with a map reading MEXICO–NEW YORK.
- [The “Maharani” Reverso](https://myreversostory.com/pieces-uniques/maharani-reverso) (1936), the first documented enamel.
- [The Edward VIII Reverso](https://myreversostory.com/pieces-uniques/edward-viii-reverso) (1937), engraved for a coronation that never took place.

All 49 documented pièces uniques are on the [Stories page](https://myreversostory.com/stories).

## Common questions

### Can you engrave the back of a Reverso?

Yes. The solid back was engraved from the 1930s on, and Jaeger-LeCoultre still engraves, lacquers and enamels case backs for owners today.

### How long does engraving a Reverso take?

In the cases documented here, from several weeks to about three months. One collector’s portrait engraving took about three months in all, from mock-ups to the finished watch.

### Does Jaeger-LeCoultre show a design before engraving?

In the documented cases, yes: working from a collector’s photographs, the manufacture came back with a couple of mock-ups showing how the image could fit the rectangular back.

### Where is the engraving done?

At the manufacture in Switzerland. Collectors ordered through their boutique, and the watch travelled to Switzerland for the work.

### Can an engraving design be kept exclusive?

In one documented case the manufacture promised a collector’s pattern would not be reproduced for anyone else, and stopped a second request until it confirmed the order came from the same client.

### Should a new Reverso be engraved by an independent engraver?

Collectors here left it to the manufacture. In one case the jeweller who designed the engraving preferred Jaeger-LeCoultre to cut it, so there would be no issue with the watch or its warranty.

### Can you replace a factory enamel back with your own engraving?

It has happened. For one collector, Jaeger-LeCoultre withdrew one of eight pieces of a limited enamel edition and engraved the collector’s own design on the back instead of the planned painting.

My Reverso Story is an independent collector archive, not affiliated with Jaeger-LeCoultre. This guide summarises what the collectors in this archive experienced; it is not the manufacture's policy, and options, timings and prices can differ. Ask your boutique for current details.

Share Yours

## What's on the back of yours?

If your Reverso carries an engraving, an enamel, a monogram, or a story about how it reached you, it belongs in this archive.

[Share Your Story](https://myreversostory.com/#submit)