Cartier, Paris

François Chaille & Franco Cologni, The Cartier Collection: Timepieces, Paris: Flammarion, 2006. See p. 449 for a similar dual-dial reversible wristwatch dating to 1979.

The Reverso case was developed by the designer René-Alfred Chauvot, who filed his patent in France under no. 712.868 on 4 March 1931. The patent application was described as being for: ‘[Une] Montre susceptible de coulisser dans son support et pouvant se retourner complètement sur elle-même’, that is, a watch that could slide within a holder and turn completely upon itself. The French patent was granted on 14 October 1931, and the rights were purchased, before publication, by the Swiss businessman César de Trey. In November the same year, de Trey formed a marketing company with Jacques-David LeCoultre called Spécialités Horlogères in order to market the Reverso.

During the early years of the Reverso’s production, a small number of Reverso cases were sold to other companies, including Cartier, Patek Philippe and Vacheron Constantin. However, in 1934, Spécialités Horlogères was renamed the Société de Vente des Produits Jaeger-LeCoultre, and it was this firm that acquired the Reverso patent. The Reverso’s primary aim was to protect the glass of the watch, and from the outset the model was aimed at the sportsman. It is said that César de Trey had originally approached Chauvot to design a watch that could withstand the rough and tumble of a game of polo – de Trey had apparently seen a gap in the market when challenged to produce a shock-proof watch by a polo player whose watch glass had just been broken during a match.

With its elegant, clean lines and rectangular shape, the watch’s design was perfectly suited to the Art Deco period. Reversing to a plain back, the watch also offered the tempting possibility for the buyer to personalise their watch with their own initials, their family crest or a unique decorative motif. Early advertisements for the model already showed examples with monochrome, enamel-decorated initials and monograms. However, the reversing inner case also allowed for the introduction of a secondary dial on its back.

Although Jaeger LeCoultre did not officially introduce a series-produced dual-dial Reverso until the 1990s, Cartier had already taken advantage of the design by the 1970s, producing versions with two dials, such as the example shown here – one on the front and one on the back of the revolving inner case – each powered by its own movement and set from an individual winding crown. This ingenious dual-time watch features dials in contrasting colours, making it easy to distinguish between the two. The winding crowns are subtly recessed into the case so that only the crown corresponding to the visible dial is exposed at any given time. Although thicker than Cartier’s slimmer reversible wristwatch with a single dial, the addition of a second movement and dial increases the thickness by little more than 2.5mm.