Source: https://myreversostory.com/stories/mitch-lint
Summary: Number one of only fifty, handed over at a boutique opening in the snow — until a loupe revealed a speck of lint trapped beneath the crystal. Getting it…
Updated: 2026-10-25
Publisher: My Reverso Story (https://myreversostory.com), an independent collector archive, not affiliated with Jaeger-LeCoultre.

Mitch & Linda Katz

# Number One — and the Piece of Lint

Number one of only fifty, handed over at a boutique opening in the snow — until a loupe revealed a speck of lint trapped beneath the crystal. Getting it right took three trips back to Switzerland.

Experience

## Number One — and the Piece of Lint

Number one of fifty, handed over at a boutique opening in the snow — until a loupe found a speck of lint under the crystal.

Grande Reverso Ultra Thin SQ

Linda and I were invited to New York for the opening of the Jaeger-LeCoultre boutique. It had been a long winter in the city, with one snowstorm after another. New Yorkers seemed thoroughly tired of it. We weren’t. We walked down Fifth Avenue playing in the snow like children.

That evening was the boutique opening. The boutique was filled with special watches brought in for the occasion, along with a few celebrities. While looking through the displays, I noticed a Grande Reverso Ultra Thin SQ. Stephanie from the JLC boutique in LA reminded me that she had shown it to me before and, apparently, I hadn’t been particularly interested. Sometimes a watch needs a second meeting. The movement was beautifully skeletonized and hand-engraved on both sides, surrounded by a striking blue enamel bezel. Only fifty had been made.

And this one was number one. That certainly got my attention. Stephanie took it from the display and handed it to me. The opening party was happening all around us, people talking, music, movement, but I was somewhere else entirely, studying this watch.

And then I saw something. Between six and seven o’clock, underneath the sapphire crystal, was a tiny white speck. I asked for a loupe and sure enough, there it was: a tiny, wayward piece of lint inside number one of fifty. The boutique’s watchmaker, Natalie, came over, examined it and confirmed what I had seen. The watch would have to go back to Switzerland. Several months later, the watch came back. Out came the loupe and the lint was gone, but now there were scratches on the eleven and twelve o’clock markers, apparently left during the repair and back to Switzerland it went.

Eventually, the watch returned for a third time, I examined it carefully. Independently no matter how hard I tried, there was nothing else for me to discover and with a small celebration at the boutique, number one came home with me.

Linda has told me more than once that perhaps I should work in quality control for a watch company. I seem to have an unfortunate talent for finding things that aren’t supposed to be there. She may be right, although I am much better at finding the problems than fixing them.

### About [Mitch & Linda Katz](https://myreversostory.com/collectors/mitch-linda-katz)

For Mitch Katz and his wife Linda, watches have never been simply objects to collect. They have become part of a life together, connected to friendships, travels, accidents, laughter, personal milestones, and the people they have met along the way. That same belief, that the real value of a watch lies in the stories surrounding it, also led Mitch to write *Time on My Hands: A Collector’s Journey in the World of Watches*, his memoir about the watches, people, and experiences that shaped his collecting life. He has since carried his love of horology into fiction with *Time Eternal*, the first in a series of mysteries set within the world of watches, with three further novels in development. Together, these ten watches tell something larger than the story of a collection: the story of Mitch and Linda, and of how, over time, watches became part of the memories they share.

[Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/uniquelyprototype/)[Time on My Hands (book)](https://www.amazon.com/Time-My-Hands-Collectors-Journey/dp/1964014530)[Time Eternal (book)](https://www.amazon.com/Time-Eternal-Mitch-Katz/dp/1964014638)

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