Source: https://myreversostory.com/stories/shipoli-istanbul Summary: Edi and Deni wanted an engraving that meant something, not a postcard — no bridge, no mosque, no obvious skyline. Istanbul jeweler Sevan Bıçakçı turned a… Updated: 2026-10-25 Publisher: My Reverso Story (https://myreversostory.com), an independent collector archive, not affiliated with Jaeger-LeCoultre. Edi, Deni & Brion Shipoli # Our Istanbul Edi and Deni wanted an engraving that meant something, not a postcard — no bridge, no mosque, no obvious skyline. Istanbul jeweler Sevan Bıçakçı turned a conversation about tea, simit, and seagulls by the Bosphorus into three tiny works of art, and one of them became theirs. Experience ## Our Istanbul A green dial, a blank steel reverse, and a question from an Istanbul jeweller: not what do you want on it — but what do you actually remember? Reverso Tribute Monoface, green dial · 2022 By 2021, we had already decided on the Nonantième, but that same year Jaeger-LeCoultre introduced another Reverso that immediately caught our attention: the steel Reverso Tribute Monoface with a green dial. I have always had a thing for green dials. Green is probably my favorite color, and there was something particularly beautiful about the shade Jaeger-LeCoultre had chosen for this watch. Deni and I also wanted a Monoface in our collection because, after the Duoface and the much more complicated Nonantième, there was something appealing about having a simpler, more classical Reverso. We knew from the beginning that we wanted to engrave the reverse, but we didn’t know what should go there. Jaeger-LeCoultre had told us they could create an engraving for us, and we wanted to use the opportunity to put something on the watch that actually meant something to both of us. Our first thought was Washington, DC, where we were living. But we didn’t want the obvious landmarks. We weren’t interested in putting the Capitol or the Washington Monument on the back of the watch simply because they immediately said “Washington.” We considered the Statue of Freedom on top of the Capitol dome, which we thought was more interesting, but it was simply too detailed to reproduce properly on such a small surface. So we decided to wait. The watch arrived in 2022, a few months after the Nonantième, and we started wearing it without an engraving, and we loved it. The proportions were wonderful, the green dial was even better on the wrist, and there was no reason to rush the decision. If we were going to put something permanently on the back, eventually the right idea would come. It did, although not in Washington but in Miami. Deni and I had admired Istanbul jeweler Sevan Bıçakçı for some time, and he had a boutique in Miami. We knew his work long before we knew him personally, and eventually Sevan and his team became friends. There was also an immediate connection between us because, if there is someone who loves Istanbul more than Deni and I do, and that is very difficult, it may be Sevan. Istanbul occupies a very particular place in our lives. Deni is originally from Bulgaria and I am originally from Kosovo, but when people ask us where we are from, very often our answer is simply that we are İstanbullu. We met there. We fell in love there. We studied there, worked there and spent roughly a decade of our lives there. It was where much of our academic and professional lives took shape, but it was also where we grew up together. Istanbul isn’t our birthplace, but in many ways it is the city that made us. When we met Sevan in Miami, we brought him the Reverso and asked whether he would engrave it for us. Because the watch was new and the case was steel, he preferred that the actual engraving be done through Jaeger-LeCoultre so that there would be no issue with the watch or its warranty. But he offered something that meant even more to us: he would personally design the engraving. We sat together and talked about Istanbul. Once again, we knew what we didn’t want. No usual suspects: no Bosphorus Bridge, no Sultanahmet Mosque, no Hagia Sophia and no Maiden’s Tower. They are all beautiful and important parts of the city, but we didn’t want the back of our Reverso to look like a postcard. In our conversation, Sevan asked us what we actually remembered, and that was an easier question. When we were students, some of our happiest moments were also the simplest: sitting by the Bosphorus with a glass of Turkish tea and a simit, watching the water and the seagulls. Anyone who has lived in Istanbul knows this scene. Sevan listened and told us he understood what we were looking for. He asked us to give him some time and said he would come back with ideas. Then, in February 2023, the devastating earthquakes struck Turkey and Syria. For months, the attention of people throughout Turkey, including Sevan and his team, was understandably elsewhere. We weren’t going to bother anyone about an engraving on a watch at a time like that, so we simply left it alone. Eventually, many months later, we returned to the conversation. When Sevan’s designs finally arrived, there were three extraordinary designs. Deni and I became emotional looking at them because somehow he had managed to take a conversation about our memories and turn it into three little works of art. We could have happily used any of them, but one immediately felt like ours. At the bottom is a glass of Turkish tea. Beside it is a simit, but as the form rises across the composition, the simit begins to transform into seagulls flying into the distance. Beyond them, on the horizon, stands the Galata Tower. The whole composition feels almost like looking through a window, which seems especially appropriate on the reverse of a Reverso. The Galata Tower also carries a meaning that goes beyond simply being a recognizable Istanbul landmark. Its long history reaches back to the medieval city, and the Galata neighborhood was for centuries connected with the Genoese presence in Constantinople. For us, it represents something we have always loved about Istanbul: the layers of civilizations, religions, languages and communities that have occupied the same city over centuries. What we love most about Sevan’s design, though, is that it doesn’t immediately announce itself. Someone unfamiliar with Istanbul might simply see a tower, birds, bread and tea. There is no famous skyline telling you exactly where you are. But someone who knows Istanbul will know, and that is exactly what we wanted. When Deni and I turn the Reverso over, we don’t simply see a picture of a city. We see ourselves when we were younger. We see the place where we met and fell in love, where we studied and worked, where we became adults and began building a life together. We remember sitting beside the Bosphorus with tea and simit, with the seagulls circling above us and one of the most beautiful cities in the world unfolding around us. There are grander ways to represent Istanbul. But that wasn’t our Istanbul. This is! ### 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 Reverso That Started It All**Reverso Tribute Duoface, Casa Fagliano](https://myreversostory.com/stories/shipoli-fagliano)[**The Most Beautiful Watch Ever Made**Reverso Tribute Nonantième](https://myreversostory.com/stories/shipoli-nonantieme)[**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 family**Models · the heritage tier, since 2016](https://myreversostory.com/models#m-tribute-2016)[**Personalising the back of a Reverso**Engraving · what collectors did, and how long it took](https://myreversostory.com/engraving) 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)