The Watch I Designed, and the One I Bought

Linda and I had been invited to the Shanghai Film Festival, which Jaeger-LeCoultre was sponsoring, and during a break we wandered away from the official events to find lunch. We ended up at a quiet restaurant in a garden setting and ordered something we were not entirely sure about. While we waited for the food, I started drawing on a napkin. I sketched a watch that I called the Duomètre Alarme du Jour, with the time displayed on the right side of the dial and an alarm indication on the left. The idea was that the alarm could be set for a specific time during the day and, beyond that, for a particular day of the week or to repeat every day.

That evening, at the Jaeger-LeCoultre gala, I showed the drawing to several senior people from the company, including the CEO, and enthusiastically explained what I thought the watch could do. They seemed interested, although I have always suspected they were just being polite. When I returned home, I eventually gave the napkin drawing to the US brand president. After that, I lost track of it. I never expected Jaeger-LeCoultre to put my name on a watch or even to produce the idea exactly as I had drawn it. What I really wanted, and still would enjoy, was simply a couple of hours with a designer and an engineer to find out whether the concept could actually work.

That Duomètre never materialized, but not long afterward another Jaeger-LeCoultre did. I had been invited onto a podcast to talk about my experiences as a collector, and before heading to the recording I stopped at the boutique to see Stephanie. She had just received a Grande Reverso 1931 Seconde Centrale and brought it out to show me. It was an unusual Reverso, inspired by a model from the 1930s, with a multilayered dial and a central seconds hand rather than the more familiar small-seconds display at six o’clock. Even more unusual for a Reverso, it contained possibly the first and only automatic movement.

Stephanie suggested that I wear it to the podcast, so I wore it. By the end of the evening, I liked the watch considerably more than I had when I first put it on. Then Jaeger-LeCoultre made the decision even more difficult for me. They offered to engrave the back of the watch with the same fleur-de-lis pattern that appeared on my Chocolate Reverso, an engraving they had already told me would remain exclusive to my watches.

At that point, I was probably finished. I had gone into the boutique to say hello, borrowed a watch for a podcast, and somehow ended up buying it. Once again, I had participated in what was supposed to be a conversation about watches and managed to sell one to myself. I really am an excellent salesman. At least when the customer is me.