Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Hybris Mechanica Calibre 185 Quadriptyque

To celebrate the 90th anniversary of the company’s most iconic model, which was born in 1931 as a fairly simple watch, Jaeger-LeCoultre is, for Watches & Wonders 2021, announcing the Reverso Hybris Mechanica Calibre 185 Quadriptyque (Calibre 185 for brevity), an uber-complication limited to ten pieces in 18k white gold. The Calibre 185 is the world’s first four-faced watch, and simultaneously the most complicated Reverso ever manufactured, comprising 11 complications, including a perpetual calendar, minute repeater, and indications of the synodic, draconic, and anomalistic cycles. And the list goes on…

The Complicated Reverso over the years

The history of the complicated Reverso has its roots in 1991, in the 500-piece limited edition Soixantième that commemorated the Reverso’s 60th anniversary. The Soixantième brought with it a larger case size known as the grande taille and was, more importantly, the very first Reverso to be outfitted with complications. Five more complicated Reversos followed: Reverso Tourbillon, Reverso Répétition Minutes, Reverso Chronographe Rétrograde, Reverso Géographique, and the Reverso Quantième Perpétuel. This series of watches was far more than just a claim to bragging rights – it laid the groundwork for the manufacture to rediscover high complications and to re-engineer them to fit the small confines of the rectangular Reverso case. The first Duoface models followed in the early 2000s, then came the models housing variations of the legendary twin-barrel Septantième movement. The complicated Reverso reached its zenith in 2006 with the release of the Reverso Grande Complication à Triptyque, an astronomical, three-faced Reverso model limited to 75 pieces in platinum.