Source: https://myreversostory.com/stories/sarp-titulescu Summary: An early steel Reverso found through an Istanbul dealer, its case back engraved with a signature and a date: 29·X·934. The signature belonged to Nicolae… Updated: 2026-10-25 Publisher: My Reverso Story (https://myreversostory.com), an independent collector archive, not affiliated with Jaeger-LeCoultre. Sarp Vahabi # The Diplomat’s Reverso An early steel Reverso found through an Istanbul dealer, its case back engraved with a signature and a date: 29·X·934. The signature belonged to Nicolae Titulescu, and the date was the day Atatürk received him in Ankara. Experience ## The Diplomat’s Reverso An early steel Reverso from an Istanbul dealer, a signature on its back, and a date: 29·X·934 — the day Atatürk received Nicolae Titulescu in Ankara. Reverso monoface, steel — dial signed Golay Fils & Stahl · 1930s I have always been drawn to Reversos because the back of the watch leaves room for something personal. Sometimes it is an initial, a date, a family crest or a message that probably meant something only to the person who commissioned it. This one was different. I found it through a dealer in Istanbul. The signature was that of Nicolae Titulescu, one of the most important Romanian diplomats of the interwar period. Suddenly, what had been an interesting early Reverso sitting in a dealer’s hands became something entirely different. The watch itself dates from the first years of the Reverso. It is a steel monoface with a black dial, small seconds at six, and the signature of the Geneva retailer Golay Fils & Stahl beneath the Reverso name. It has that wonderfully restrained look that early Reversos have, but the part that makes this watch special is the reverse. Engraved across the back is Titulescu’s signature, followed by a date written simply as: 29·X·934 for 29 October 1934. Once I understood whose name was on the watch, that date became the beginning of the story. On 29 October 1934, Turkey was celebrating the eleventh anniversary of the Republic. Titulescu was in Ankara and was received that day by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. The visit was important because Titulescu was not simply another foreign dignitary passing through the new Turkish capital. He was Romania’s foreign minister, had twice served as president of the League of Nations Assembly, and had been one of the central figures behind the Balkan Entente signed earlier that year between Romania, Turkey, Greece and Yugoslavia. His relationship with Turkey, and particularly with Turkish foreign minister Tevfik Rüştü Aras, belonged to a much larger effort to build cooperation and stability in a Europe that was becoming increasingly uncertain. The date on the watch places it directly inside that history. The visit was reported on the front page of *Hakimiyeti Milliye*, which announced that Atatürk had received Titulescu in Ankara. That newspaper has remained with the watch, giving us something unusual: not only an engraving and a date, but a surviving contemporary record of the day itself. What I believe is that the Reverso was presented during that visit as a commemorative gift to a Turkish statesman, its blank reverse engraved with Titulescu’s signature and the date so that the occasion would not be forgotten. Somewhere afterward, the watch entered the family of a decorated Turkish soldier. Years later it surfaced again in Istanbul, passed through a dealer, and eventually reached me. That journey is part of what I love about it. For decades, someone had preserved this little steel watch. The name on the back survived, the date survived, and somehow the newspaper from that same day survived with it. Yet by the time it appeared in front of me, much of the story had been forgotten. The dealer knew he had something unusual, but Titulescu had become simply “somebody.” But I recognized the name, and that is probably the moment when the watch became mine, at least emotionally. I collect Reversos because I like the idea that the reverse can preserve something that would otherwise disappear. Most engravings are private memories, and that is part of their beauty. This one happens to preserve something much larger: a moment between two countries, two governments and people who were trying to build alliances during one of the most difficult periods in European history. When I turn the case over, I see a man’s signature and a date. But behind those few engraved marks is Ankara in 1934, the anniversary of a young republic, Titulescu’s visit to Atatürk, and a diplomatic relationship that once mattered enough for someone to mark the day permanently on the back of a Reverso. That is a great deal of history to carry on the wrist. *About the watch.* An early stainless-steel Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso monoface, with a black dial signed by the Geneva retailer Golay Fils & Stahl, small seconds at six, and gilt markers and hands. The reverse is engraved with the signature of Nicolae Titulescu and the date 29 October 1934. Its provenance is supported by the contemporary *Hakimiyeti Milliye* front page documenting Titulescu’s visit to Ankara, a Jaeger-LeCoultre archive extract associated with the case number, and examination of the watch indicating that the retailer-signed dial and engraving are consistent with the period. ### About [Sarp Vahabi](https://myreversostory.com/collectors/sarp-vahabi) Sarp Vahabi collects Reversos for the reason the watch has always invited: the blank reverse, and what people chose to put on it. Most of those engravings are private — an initial, a date, a message meaningful to one person and unreadable to everyone since. Occasionally one preserves something much larger, and the pleasure of the hunt lies in recognising which is which. [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/watch_game_is_disgusting/)[watches.com.tr](https://watches.com.tr) More From This Collection [**Reverso (first series)**Models · 1931](https://myreversostory.com/models#m-1931-original)[**Retailer-signed Reversos**Models · dials signed by Golay Fils & Stahl and others](https://myreversostory.com/models#m-retailer-signed) Share Your Story ## Every Reverso has a second side. If your watch carries an engraving, a memory, or a story worth telling, we'd like to hear it. [Get In Touch](https://myreversostory.com/#submit)