The words of
the Reverso.

By the My Reverso Story curators · Updated 30 September 2026

60ème (Soixantième)

The Reverso made for the watch's sixtieth anniversary in 1991: the first Reverso with a complication (power reserve and date) and the first with a sapphire display back. It opened a series of six 500-piece anniversary complications.

Calibre 101

Jaeger-LeCoultre's smallest movement, introduced in 1929 and still made: 98 parts weighing about a fifth of a gram, the smallest mechanical movement ever put into series production. It powers the jewellery Reversos, where the winding crown moves to the back.

Calibre 822

The hand-wound rectangular movement built in 1991 for the Grande Taille case and drawn in the spirit of the 1930s calibre 410. It still powers many Reversos, including the enamel Tributes.

Case back

The reverse of the watch case. On a Reverso it is the face that turns outward when the case is flipped, which is why it carries engravings, enamel or a second dial.

Cloisonné enamel

Enamel laid into small cells formed by fine metal wires, each cell holding one colour. The cloisonné Reverso dials of the 1940s and 1950s documented here carry the numbering of the Geneva dial maker Stern Frères.

Cradle

The fixed frame of the Reverso, attached to the strap, in which the case slides and turns. Some pieces carry a display inside the cradle itself, such as the Triptyque and the Quadriptyque.

Duetto

The women's two-faced Reverso, introduced in 1997: a discreet dial for day on the front and a more decorative one for evening on the back, one movement driving both.

Duoface

A Reverso with a dial on each side, introduced in 1994: local time on the front, a second time zone on the back, from one movement.

Duoplan

LeCoultre's finest shaped movement of the early 1930s. It was too thick for the Reverso, one reason the first series used a bought-in Tavannes movement.

Gadroons (godrons)

The three stepped ribs above and below the Reverso's dial, added between the 1931 patent and the first production watches. The squarer Reverso II of 1982–83 is almost the only Reverso made without them.

Grand feu enamel

Vitreous enamel, powdered glass fused to metal in a kiln, applied and fired layer by layer. The Hokusai enamel backs are built from around fourteen fired layers, roughly 100 hours per watch.

Grande Taille

The larger Reverso case introduced in 1991 to give the complications room, with calibre 822. It stayed in production until 2016.

Guilloché

A pattern of fine engraved lines cut into a dial or case with a hand-operated rose engine. Under translucent enamel it gives depth and light, as on the Tribute Enamel dials.

Gyrotourbillon

Jaeger-LeCoultre's multi-axis tourbillon. The Reverso Gyrotourbillon 2 of 2008 was the first wristwatch with a cylindrical hairspring; the smaller calibre 179 of 2016 made it flying.

Hybris Artistica

Jaeger-LeCoultre's programme, running since 2012, that hands a grand complication to the rare-crafts atelier, so mechanism and decoration share one watch.

Hybris Mechanica

Jaeger-LeCoultre's programme for its most extreme mechanics, running since 2006: three and four working faces, spherical and multi-axis tourbillons, striking movements. Its Calibre 185 Quadriptyque of 2021 is the most complicated Reverso ever made.

Lacquered engraving

Coloured lacquer applied to the case back, often filling engraved lines. Collectors in this archive chose lacquered lettering for a daughter's name and a lacquered engraving for a guitar with Art Deco initials.

Lisica

The signature found on many bought-in movements of the first Reversos, including the Tavannes calibre 064.

Métiers Rares

Jaeger-LeCoultre's atelier of rare crafts: grand feu enamel, miniature painting, guillochage, paillonnage and gem-setting. Its enamel series are catalogued piece by piece on the Stories page.

Miniature enamel painting

Painting in enamel at very small scale. On a Reverso back a canvas of over a square metre can be reproduced on about two square centimetres, in roughly 80 hours.

Monoface

A Reverso with a single dial and a solid back.

Nonantième

French for “ninetieth”. The Reverso Tribute Nonantième of 2021 marked ninety years of the Reverso, with a jumping digital hour, a minute disc and a day/night indicator on its back.

One (Reverso One)

The women's Reverso family set in 2016: a slim 2:1 rectangle echoing the narrow ladies' Reversos of the 1930s.

Paillonnage

Thin metal foil laid beneath translucent enamel to catch the light; the Turner series uses strips of silver foil to make the water glint.

Pièce unique

A one-of-a-kind watch made for a single owner, engraved or enamelled by the manufacture. This archive documents 49, from the 1933 Balbo Reverso to modern commissions.

Quadriptyque

The Reverso Hybris Mechanica Calibre 185 of 2021: the first wristwatch with four working display faces, eleven complications and twelve patents.

Reverso

Latin for “I turn around”: Jaeger-LeCoultre's rectangular watch whose case turns over in its cradle, patented on 4 March 1931. See What is the Reverso?

Reverso à Éclipses

A Reverso with a miniature shutter over the case back, opened by a wheel beside the crown, that conceals a painted enamel beneath.

Reverso Classic

The modern entry family set in 2016, in three sizes, each as Monoface, Duoface or Duetto.

Reverso II

The squarer, mostly quartz relaunch of 1982–83 for the manufacture's 150th anniversary, almost the only Reverso without gadroons. Its shape returned in the Squadra.

Reverso Tribute

The heritage family set in 2016, closest in detail to the 1930s watches, with in-house calibres.

Spécialités Horlogères

The Lausanne company founded by César de Trey and Jacques-David LeCoultre to sell the Reverso; in 1937 it became the sales arm of the merged Jaeger-LeCoultre.

Squadra

The square Reverso family of 2006–2012, whose proportions came from René-Alfred Chauvot's original 1931 drawings of a square case.

Staybrite

The stainless steel of early Reverso cases, advertised in 1940 as “absolutely stainless, and of a hardness proof against any test”.

Tavannes calibre 064

The bought-in movement of the first Reversos (1931–1933), used because no LeCoultre movement fitted the rectangle.

Triptyque

The Reverso Grande Complication à Triptyque of 2006: the first watch with three dials driven by one movement, the third set into the cradle, showing civil, sidereal and perpetual time.

My Reverso Story is an independent collector archive, not affiliated with Jaeger-LeCoultre. Reverso-specific definitions are drawn from the archive's history, models and calibres pages; the general watchmaking terms are given in their plain, standard sense.