Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Tribute Geographic: A New Take on the World Timer

Watches And Wonders 2025 has arrived, and this year, Jaeger-LeCoultre is putting a lot of oomph behind new takes on its Reverso. While we will explore other notable novelties that are joining the Reverso family, right now we’re going to look at what I think is among the most impressive of the bunch, the new Reverso Tribute Geographic, which, with a flip of the case, reveals a laser-engraved and lacquered world-time complication. 

It may be a bit uncouth to make any mullet references when haute horology is involved, but I can’t resist stating the obvious here: This piece is business in the front, world-timer party in the back. Sorry, I couldn’t help myself there. Anyway, to position ourselves within the larger JLC universe, the Reverso Tribute line was launched in 2016 as a way to commemorate the 85th anniversary of the Reverso, the main idea of it being to bring the Reverso back to its roots in proportion while giving a fresh interpretation to its classic art-deco design. While the Reverso is not the first watch that comes to my mind when I think of a sports watch, it’s always fun to remember that it was in fact created for the sporting world – polo, to be specific – giving rise to the practical utility behind this watch’s swiveling case, whose secondary stainless steel back protected the dial and movement while the players were in action.

In the case of this watch, this is the first time that the Reverso Tribute collection takes on an additional complication geared towards travel. That being said, I would likely not lean into the Reverso’s sporty roots with this watch on my wrist (the monoface options feel safer in those use cases). For this added functionality, JLC has created the new Calibre 834 movement, and all the 209 components within it are manufactured in-house from the ground up. There are no added modules here, folks. But, to accommodate the added complication, the case size has had to add on some real estate and is larger than its more historically accurate siblings, with its rectangular case measuring 49.4mm x 29.9 mm with a thickness of 11.4mm. Even with its larger dimensions, I will say that when I had the chance to try this piece on, it didn’t feel overwhelming on my small wrist in the slightest. 

Currently, the Reverso Tribute Geographic is being offered in two distinct models: one in stainless steel with a sunray blue dial and a 150-piece limited edition in 18K pink gold with a chocolate brown dial. The dial layout used for these is familiar, with Dauphine hands and trapezoidal applied indices (in either steel or pink gold to match), with a small seconds counter above 6 o'clock and a printed railroad minutes track along the dial’s perimeter. The large date window at 12 o’clock is still somewhat novel, and the Grande Date complication was revamped in 2021 to accommodate the updated case measurements of the Reverso while presenting both digits on the same plane on two individual disks. 

The clear standout of this new take on the Reverso Tribute, and why we are gathered here today to talk about it, is undoubtedly the reverse world-timer side of the watch. On the polished caseback, the key city names have been directly engraved on the surface. The globe map detail correlates to the geographical positions of the cities (duh) and achieves its dynamic appearance with a combination of laser engraving and lacquer, the latter of which has been done by hand. While it's a bit more typical to see world-timers with adjustable city scales, the 24-hour scale (with day/night indication) is what rotates for setting the time in the case of the Reverso Tribute Geographic, and is manipulated with a sneakily hidden pusher between the lugs and the top case in one-hour increments. Additionally, both models are water-resistant up to 30 meters. 

The new Reverso Tribute Geographic models are available now and are accompanied by two additional leather straps along with a special 90-year anniversary Nonantième collector’s box. For more information, visit the brand’s website here.