It was 1931 when Jaeger-LeCoultre’s Reverso – known for its distinctive swivelling face originally developed for polo players – hit the market as a 20th-century design icon.
More than 90 years later, the model continues to captivate. In 2024, this is by way of a series of three new Reverso Tribute Enamel timepieces that pay homage to Claude Monet’s iconic Venice paintings.
Launching alongside the Homo Faber Biennial, a major cultural exhibition in Venice, the collection features three limited-edition watches, each punctuated with a miniature reproduction of Monet’s Venice scenes on the caseback.
Each watch in the series is a tribute to a specific Monet painting: San Giorgio Maggiore at Dusk, The Grand Canal and The Doge’s Palace.
Showcasing the métiers d’art crafts of miniature painting, enamelling and guilloche, the miniaturisation of Monet’s works onto the small surface area of the caseback requires incredible precision and skill, with the enamelling process alone taking up to 70 hours.
To capture the light and atmospheric quality of Monet’s original paintings, up to 14 layers of enamel have been applied to each caseback, with multiple firings at temperatures reaching 800°C.
Meanwhile, the dials of each watch are decorated with elegant guilloche patterns, covered by layers of translucent grand feu enamel, echoing the dream-like quality of Monet’s Venice series.
For those looking to secure one of these insane works of watchmaking art, each of Jaeger-LeCoultre’s Reverso Tribute Enamel “Venice Series” will only be released in an extremely limited run of 10 editions per design.
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