A Legacy Unfolds

Jaeger-LeCoultre’s latest Magnum Opus reveals a breathtaking four-part story of the manufacture’s inventive spirit and watchmaking savoir faire.

- Celine Yap

The phrase ‘turning back the clock’ has a profoundly different meaning with the JaegerLeCoultre Reverso Hybris Mechanica Calibre 185. Unveiled to an exclusive audience on 4 March – the exact day 90 years ago when the Reverso received its certification from the Swiss patent office – this astonishing grand complication cleanly trumps all others made in the history of watchmaking as it has four separate functioning dials that earn it a most extraordinary sobriquet, the Quadriptyque.

Indisputably one of the most important icons of modern haute horlogerie, the Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso is globally renowned for its unique case design that swivels back and forth to reveal the back of the case, a secondary dial, or in the case of the category-defying Quadriptyque, much more.

Four faces, 11 complications, 12 patents (three of which are completely new) and 800 components have been squirrelled into one svelte package that’s even more wearable than its predecessor, the three-dialed Reverso Triptyque of 2006. More remarkably, the Quadriptyque took Jaeger-LeCoultre just six years to perfect – lesser watches have taken more time to produce.

Says CEO of Jaeger-LeCoultre, Catherine Rénier: “We see it as a very important piece, a tribute not only to the Reverso and its iconic design, but also to the manufacture. This piece is done totally in-house, from design of the calibre, to ideas on construction, to manufacturing, all the way to finishes and metiers rares.”

To Be Precise