Source: https://myreversostory.com/stories/shipoli-fagliano Summary: Edi and Deni went to New York with another brand’s watch already picked out for Deni. They came home instead with a limited-edition Reverso Duoface they had… Updated: 2026-10-26 Publisher: My Reverso Story (https://myreversostory.com), an independent collector archive, not affiliated with Jaeger-LeCoultre. Edi, Deni & Brion Shipoli # The Reverso That Started It All Edi and Deni went to New York with another brand’s watch already picked out for Deni. They came home instead with a limited-edition Reverso Duoface they had specifically told the boutique they weren’t buying — and it became the one watch in the house Edi still isn’t allowed to wear. Experience ## The Reverso That Started It All A week in a quiet New York, a watch already picked out at another boutique — and the Reverso they had told Sheila they weren’t coming to buy. Reverso Tribute Duoface, Casa Fagliano · 2021 Jaeger-LeCoultre was not new to us when we started interacting with the brand and the Reverso. We had known and admired the brand for years and already owned a few vintage pieces. What attracted us was what Jaeger-LeCoultre represented as a watchmaker, particularly its history of movement making and the enormous variety of watches and complications it had created. But our relationship with the brand, and the Reverso, really began in 2020, during a year when almost everything else in our lives was changing. Deni had just finished her PhD when, shortly afterward, we discovered that she was pregnant with our first child. We were thrilled. Then, almost immediately, the world shut down. Like everyone else, we suddenly found ourselves living through something none of us had experienced before. There was COVID, lockdown, uncertainty and, in the middle of all of it, a pregnancy and the anticipation of becoming parents for the first time. On December 26, our son, Brion, was born. The best day of our lives. We wanted watches to mark that chapter of our lives, not simply because of his birth, but because of everything that surrounded it. For me, we chose a Vacheron Constantin Historiques 1942. For Deni, we decided to wait. Once Brion had received the vaccinations he needed and we finally felt comfortable traveling with him, I planned a week in New York in April 2021. After such a long year at home, the trip itself felt special. I had made appointments at several watch boutiques so that Deni could try different pieces and choose the watch that would always remind her of becoming a mother. New York was still strangely quiet. Masks were everywhere, many places remained closed, and boutiques were often seeing only one client at a time. It was certainly not the New York we remembered. One of our appointments was at Jaeger-LeCoultre. We met Sheila, the boutique manager, and were very open with her from the beginning. We told her that we loved Jaeger-LeCoultre and wanted to visit, but that this particular watch for Deni was probably going to come from another brand. We already had something else in mind. She couldn’t have been nicer about it. Then she brought out a Reverso, and not just any Reverso — she brought out a limited-edition Reverso Duoface created with Casa Fagliano, in pink gold, with a deep burgundy dial on one side and a contrasting white dial on the other. Deni loved it immediately; it just spoke to her. Still, we had come to New York with another watch in mind, so we thanked Sheila and went to our appointment at the other boutique. Once there, however, everything felt different. The experience wasn’t particularly warm, to say the least, and when Deni finally had the watch we had been talking about for so long in front of her, the connection simply wasn’t there. Maybe it was the watch, but not really: it was the experience. Watches are about experience and memories, and that experience was not inviting. Whatever the reason, she looked at me and said she didn’t want the watch she had in mind anymore. We went back to the hotel, and I wrote to Sheila: “Do you still have the Reverso?” She did, and she said she was waiting for us the next day. We returned to Jaeger-LeCoultre and bought the watch we had specifically told Sheila we weren’t coming to buy. More than five years later, it remains one of the most important watches in our collection, although calling it part of “our” collection requires some clarification. It is Deni’s, completely. She loves it so much that this is the only watch I am not allowed to wear. What we couldn’t have known that day was how much that one decision would shape our collecting afterward. We had owned vintage Jaeger-LeCoultre watches before, but this was our first Reverso. It opened a door that never really closed. More Reversos followed, and our relationship with Jaeger-LeCoultre became an increasingly important part of our life as collectors. Today, with all the watches that have come afterward, this one still occupies its own place. We bought it to remember the birth of our son after one of the strangest and most difficult years of our lives. Instead, it also became the beginning of another story we hadn’t planned at all: Our Reverso Story. ### About [Edi, Deni & Brion Shipoli](https://myreversostory.com/collectors/edi-deni-shipoli) For Edi and Deni Shipoli, collecting watches has never really been about building a collection according to a plan. The watches that have stayed with them are usually the ones that became connected to something else: a place, a friendship, a journey, an achievement, the birth of their son Brion, or simply a moment in their lives that they wanted to remember. Their relationship with Jaeger-LeCoultre began with an appreciation for the brand long before they seriously began collecting Reversos — they owned vintage pieces and admired the company’s history as a watchmaker and movement maker, but the Reverso gradually became something much more personal. That story really began in 2021, when Edi and Deni traveled to New York after an extraordinary year: Deni had completed her PhD, they had lived through the uncertainty of the pandemic, and in December 2020 their son Brion had been born. They went to New York looking for a watch to commemorate his birth and came home having unexpectedly begun a relationship with Jaeger-LeCoultre. That way of looking at watches sits naturally beside Edi and Deni’s work as the creators of *Watches & Politics*, a project exploring horology through history, culture, diplomacy, economics, power, and the people and institutions that shape the watch world. [Edi on Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/shipoli_e/)[Brion on Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/brionandwatches/)[Watches & Politics — YouTube](https://youtube.com/@WatchesAndPolitics)[Watches & Politics — Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/show/7uFPFIcvfG8IwrbhXMNcjl)[Watches & Politics — Apple Podcasts](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/watches-and-politics/id1822610214)[Watches & Politics — website](https://www.shipoliventures.com/watchesandpolitics) More From This Collection [**The Most Beautiful Watch Ever Made**Reverso Tribute Nonantième](https://myreversostory.com/stories/shipoli-nonantieme)[**Our Istanbul**Reverso Tribute Monoface, green dial](https://myreversostory.com/stories/shipoli-istanbul)[**The Call Before the Appointment**Reverso Tribute Chronograph, steel](https://myreversostory.com/stories/shipoli-chronograph)[**Our First Watches and Wonders**Reverso Tribute Geographic, steel](https://myreversostory.com/stories/shipoli-geographic)[**Reverso Tribute Duoface Fagliano**Limited Editions · the Fagliano editions](https://myreversostory.com/limited-editions?q=Fagliano)[**Reverso Tribute Duoface Fagliano**Models · 2016, polo straps from Casa Fagliano](https://myreversostory.com/models#m-tribute-duoface-fagliano) 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)