Source: https://myreversostory.com/stories/mitch-repeater Summary: The woman who once called herself a “watch widow” looked at the rarest watch in the room and told her husband exactly one thing: buy it. Only ten were ever… Updated: 2026-10-25 Publisher: My Reverso Story (https://myreversostory.com), an independent collector archive, not affiliated with Jaeger-LeCoultre. Mitch & Linda Katz # Linda Said I Had to Buy It The woman who once called herself a “watch widow” looked at the rarest watch in the room and told her husband exactly one thing: buy it. Only ten were ever made, and Linda picked out number eight herself. Experience ## Linda Said I Had to Buy It Only ten were made, and number eight was still free. Then the woman who once called herself a “watch widow” looked at her husband and said four words. Reverso Tribute Minute Repeater · 2021 Years earlier, Linda had sat at a watch dinner and announced to a room full of collectors that she knew nothing about watches and wasn’t particularly interested in them, and designated herself a “watch widow.” I never forgot it. Fast forward to 2021, when we had been invited to Jaeger-LeCoultre’s Sound Maker exhibition, a celebration of the manufacture’s long history of watches that make sound. We spent three wonderful days with the Jaeger-LeCoultre team and fellow collectors, several of whom became lasting friends. During one of our meetings, I was shown a new watch: The Reverso Tribute Minute Repeater. It was extraordinary and the skeletonized, beautifully finished, movement had a trick under its sleeve: it chimed. Clear, beautiful notes sounded from this little rectangular watch. Even the construction was unusual: the gongs had been shaped to work within the architecture of the Reverso case. Only ten were going to be made and most were already spoken for. Number one was gone, and so was number ten. But number eight was available and eight is considered particularly auspicious in Chinese culture and is strongly associated with prosperity and good fortune. I was surprised such a desirable number was still there. Then I looked at Linda. She had heard the number, and most importantly the price. And then my wife, the woman who once proudly called herself a “watch widow,” looked at me and said: “You have to get it.” I was stunned. What was more beautiful and much rarer, than a minute repeater? She went on to explain that with all the watches I owned, it didn’t make sense that I didn’t have a minute repeater in my collection. The problem: Jaeger-LeCoultre finished the watch much earlier than expected. They had said three years, it came in six months. At the time, it was stressful, but today none of that is what I think about when I hold the watch and I listen: hours, quarter hours, minutes. It brings me joy every time. And should the electricity ever go out, I am prepared. I may be sitting in complete darkness, but my Reverso can still tell me exactly what time it is. Perhaps the best part of the story, though, isn’t the repeater: it’s Linda. She had come a long way. We both had, together. ### 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) More From This Collection [**Linda’s Second Reverso**Reverso Duetto, rose gold](https://myreversostory.com/stories/mitch-linda-second)[**The Watch Widow**Reverso Duoface](https://myreversostory.com/stories/mitch-linda-duoface)[**Number One of Five**Grande Reverso 101 Art Déco](https://myreversostory.com/stories/mitch-101)[**The repeating Reversos**Limited Editions · from 1994 to 2025](https://myreversostory.com/limited-editions?q=Minute%20Repeater)[**Reverso Répétition Minutes à Rideau**Models · 2011](https://myreversostory.com/models#m-rideau)[**Reverso Tribute Minute Repeater**Models · the 2025 successor](https://myreversostory.com/models#m-tribute-repeater-953) Share Your Story ## Every Reverso has a second side. 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