The elite Swiss watchmaker Jaeger LeCoultre created a buzz by setting a new record with the release of the world’s first four-sided Reverso watch. And it’s perhaps no surprise to know that this four-faced timepiece is the most complicated Reverso produced to date. The all-new Jaeger LeCoultre Reverso Hybris Mechanica Calibre 185 Quadriptyque watch debuted at Watches & Wonders Geneva 2021.
Jaeger LeCoultre has supposedly spent six years researching and manufacturing this Euro 1.35 million watch that manifests the brand’s unrivalled expertise. Keep reading to dig into the details of this exceedingly complicated luxury watch that sets a world record being four-sided.
A Quick Look at the Reverso History
You can trace the history of the Reverso back to 1931, when Jaeger LeCoultre produced the watch on a request from India. The watchmaker received a proposal to create a timepiece that one can wear during polo matches with no damages. Thus, the brand turned up with a cradle that could hold the watch, and also, you can slide it out of the cradle, slide back and reverse.
When JLC introduced the Reverso, it became an instantaneous success. It became popular among polo players, as well as men and women. The watch attained an iconic status in the first decade, and the brand upgraded it over the years. Jaeger LeCoultre also added a three-faced Reverso Triptyque version to the collection in 2006.
The New JLC Reverso Hybris Mechanica Quadriptyque Calibre 185
Jaeger LeCoultre introduced the newest Reverso Quadriptyque as the world’s first-ever wristwatch featuring four different faces. It comes with a double-sided cradle and a double-faced case. Moreover, it packs eleven complications: a minute repeater, celestial complications, and a perpetual calendar within a rectangular surface. It measures only 51mm by 31mm by 15.15mm.
The First Face
The first face of the Reverso Hybris Mechanica Calibre 185 exhibits the time and perpetual calendar indicators that jump at midnight. These indication features consider leap years, and the indicators display accurate results despite any irregularity in days each month.
However, you can see the flying tourbillon at the 7 o’clock side that doubles when serving as the indicator of running seconds. Furthermore, the watch features a Clou de Paris guilloche style dial. And Jaeger LeCoultre has skeletonised the dial partially to expose the month, date and day wheels.
The Second Face
Interestingly, the second face pays tribute to the brand’s innovative chiming models. Moreover, you will get another dial here displaying the time.
However, the dial showcases the elements of the minute repeater besides the digital jumping hour. In the newest Quadriptyque, if you press a slide in the case, it will set many springs, gongs and hammers in motion.
Eventually, it dings a melody of low notes in agreement to the hours with alternative low and high notes for quarter hours, followed by high notes depicting the minutes.
The Third Face
The third face is the case’s interior that includes three displays of lunar details – anomalistic, draconic and synodic cycles. And it is something that you can find in watchmaking the first time. Moreover, the timepiece can track astronomical events like eclipses and super moons.
The Fourth Face
The fourth face of the new Jaeger LeCoultre Reverso Quadriptyque is the case back that showcases the moon phase, as you can see from the southern hemisphere.
The Most Complicated Calibre 185 Movement
The exclusive four-faced JLC Reverso houses an extremely complex in-house Calibre 185 movement. However, besides a minute repeater and a perpetual calendar, it incorporates a super complicated astronomical and celestial mechanism that gives three lunar displays. It allows you to predict eclipses and super moon days.
However, this is the first time that a watchmaker presented three lunar cycles together inside a single wristwatch. Expert artisans at Jaeger LeCoultre had to use 12 patents to create this challenging feat.
The Calibre 185 powering the timepiece is made of 800 separate components. Each component is highly complicated, and JLC integrated them within a rectangular shape. However, they display the fantastic technical skills need to showcase this unusual artistry.
When the perpetual calendar indicators change right at midnight, the watch has to be inside the cradle entirely closed. This is because a unique JLC’s patented system engages and makes sure that all the things turn instantaneously.
However, other innovative features include a new mechanism of date displays that one needed to set the grand date at 5:00 rather than 6:00. Jaeger LeCoultre produced the Reverso Hybris Mechanica Quadriptyque Calibre 185 in a limited edition of only ten pieces.
