To mark the 80th anniversary of the Reverso, Zep has designed and personalised an enamel dial for a Reverso à éclipse in pink gold: a one-off work of art. The celebrated Swiss artist drew his inspiration from a visit he made to the Manufacture last April.

Enamelling, like engraving, is one of the rare crafts carefully honed by the Jaeger-LeCoultre Manufacture. Today’s enamelling workshop is staffed by three experts, who offer a wide range of personalisation options for the watch Reverso itself, but also for enamel dials. The unique works created by these craftsmen at the Jaeger-LeCoultre Manufacture are a testament to an expertise combining tradition and inventiveness. They make use of cutting-edge techniques that are then unveiled in each year’s collections.

This unique Reverso watch, designed by Zep, will be sold at the Artcurial auction house on 29 November 2011 in Paris, with the proceeds benefiting the muscular dystrophy charity “Association monégasque contre les Myopathies”.

The Brand also had the honour of unveiling a special preview of the design at the Veytay Polo Club during the finals of the Jaeger-LeCoultre Polo Masters Geneva.

“I’ve always been fascinated by miniaturisation and the aesthetics of mechanical movements. The idea of slipping Titeuf in amongst the complex and subtle cogs of a Reverso seemed obvious. It’s also a nod to the character ‘Charlot’ in the film ‘Modern Times’. I only hope that my personal touch doesn’t upset the legendary accuracy of his Reverso…” said Zep, whose real name is Philippe Chappuis.

While most automobile brands that associate themselves with watch brands tend to be exclusive in their partnerships, Mercedes seems to suprise with every new watch venture they embark on. Some of the brands that Mercedes has associated themselves with: IWC, Graham, Tag Heuer, Fabien Cacheux, Ulysse Nardin, and their own Brand created with Tourneau. There are very possibly others that I have missed too!

Most recently is the addition of Graham to the mix to celebrate the Mercedes GP Petronas Formula 1 Team. The Mercedes watch they introduced is kind of ugly in my opinion. Designed more in the style of Graham than Mercedes, and features lots of discord with the mix of design elements making a watch that is overall not too tasteful.

While Mercedes has chosen to associate themselves with so many brands, they have for the most part made tasteful watches. However, unlike Ferrari by Panerai and Breitling for Bentley, the watches have very little association with each other.

Personally, I think the most successful and tasteful Automobile and Watch team-ups would be Breitling for Bentley and Jaeger LeCoultre and Aston Martin. The most Epic Fail Automobile Watch brand would be Tonino Lamborghini. Why would you license your brand out to a company that cannot market your product properly? Didn’t the 80′s and 90′s teach companies anything about licensing your brand – now we see Tonino Lamborghini products fill the shelves in discount stores and ebay.

Here is a gallery of some of the Mercedes collaboration watches out there:

So, Sly Stalone wins this award for “Glory to the Filmaker” in September, which is some sort of visionary filmaker award. Stalone has admittedly been putting out some damn good films lately, and the Upcoming movie “The Expendables” looks awesome… but an award with a JLC Reverso? Not that I have anything against those Ugly-gotta-have watches, but Sylvester is a dyed-in-the-wool Panerai Loyalist… Will he ever wear this?

At any rate, it is a huge honor for Sly to be awarded this at the Venice Film Festival awards, especially given that most people thought he was a one-dimensional actor with little talent. The last Rambo movie was an excellent film, and most of his recent stuff has been as well.

Sweet new watch from Jaeger-LeCoultre! A big 44mm AMOVOX2 Chronograph, with sweet semi-open dial and titanium case. This is a very nice watch from JLC, and while being a bit edgier in styling, still maintains that characteristic JLC look.

This watch was unveiled at LeMans and uses the JLC caliber 751E. This movement has a 60 hour power reserve and 41 jewels. Beautifully hand-finished movement from one of the best bang-for-buck Watch Manufactures out there.

Look out Jaeger! Dubey & Schaldenbrand is looking to take a peice of the reverso pie with their new Spiral Verso VIP watch, launched this year at the Exposition Geneva! This is a very cool looking watch as you can see from the little video that the guys at Dubey put together.

I’ve always been a fan.. and this one is definately one cool watch!

Movement: Chronograph 3 counters with triple date and moon phase
Self-winding mechanical movement from Dubey & Schaldenbrand Chronometer-quality escapement, stop second
Finish: Hand engraved decorated movement gold finish Skeletonized rotor, blued steel screws
Frequency: 28.800 vibrations per hour
Jewels: 25 / Incabloc
Power reserve: 48 hours
Functions: Hours, minutes, subsidiary seconds, 24 hours hand, chronograph, day, date, month and moon phase
Dial: Brossé with 6 blued half spheres set on a brushed dial
Hands: “Losanges diamantés” with SuperLuminova Chronograph hand with vintage spiral (exclusivity DS)
Case: Polished 316L surgical stainless steel, mobile lugs. Blue set crown
Dimensions: 41 x 47.5 mm, Height 15.5 mm
Watch crystal: Anti-reflective sapphire crystal domed on top and on the bottom
Water resistance: To 30 meters
Band: Galuchat royal (24 mm special cut)
Dimensions: 20 mm stainless steel bracelet
Buckle: 16 mm tang or deployant
Special features: Crown on left side
Revolutionary flying case

Do you have an Aston Martin DBS? If so, you just might have to score yourself one of these JLC AMVOX2 DBS Transponder watches, that allow you to interact with your car! Using the Amvox2 system of using the Sapphire Crystal as the trigger (you simply push down on it), you can unlock and lock your doors of your Aston Martin DBS Sportscar.

Crafted of 18kt Pink Gold, the Jaeger-LeCoultre AMBOX2 DBS Transponder watch is available exclusively through Aston Martin dealerships for owners of the Aston Martin DBS. Though the Transponder itself is not mechanical, the rest of the watch is. When this watch was announced I was prepared to be surprised by a completely mechanical watch doing the work, but there is indeed some electronics used to control the circuit.

Check it out:

And now, check out the car!

Looks like watch brands are trying to get in on some of the retail action as well as direct promotion of their own brands. Breitling has some Brand Boutiques in Japan and other places in the world, but none in North America unfortunately. However, Jaeger LeCoultre has opened its first North American boutique and Piaget has opened it’s first west coast boutique, already having several boutiques on the east coast and in Hawaii.

JLC continues to be one of the most sought after wristwatch manufactures out there, with over 1000 people working in their workshops in Switzerland. As their catalog states, their personnel span over 40 different professions masterings more than 20 different cutting-edge technologies required to design and produce over 40 different calibres.

Very impressive.

I really look forward to owning my first Jaeger LeCoultre soon. The catalog is indeed a work of art in itself, with over 270 pages of beautiful pictures explaining the watches and their brand. The pinnacle of their achievement is the Gyrotourbillon:

Like Fungus!

Sorry… I just really wanted to say that. Back to business… the Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso is probably one of the ugliest popular watches out there in my opinion, and I never really liked them. However, that is starting to change. The lines do not flow, the bezel is clunky, and it usually sports a set of very out-of-place looking Arabics. But obviously the designers at Jaeger are doing something right, because the watch sells.

I am starting to like the Larger Reverso Grande’s, with the bigger face and thick straps. Check out this bad boy:

That’s the JLC Grand Reverso Complication a Tryptique… it is mind-boggling crazy. Under the first watch is another set of comlications on both the rear and the base of the watch.. just too many to list! It won the Watchtime Reader’s Choice Watch of the Year for technical innovation last year. I’m not surprised! (notice it didn’t win for Design )

In a way, they remind of me Beer and Wine, and Spyderco Knives. An acquired taste, one that develops when a distinguished gentleman reaches a particular point in his life or somesuch. Or maybe it’s just a taste you never acquire.

At any rate, the JLC Reverso is not a watch I like enough to buy, but it is starting to turn my head when I see one. The dials are certainly beautifully made, and the reverso mechanism is machined beautifully to very exacting tolerances. I really enjoyed playing with the one I handled. But in my opinion, the Reverso is one of those watches that is so ugly it is beautiful.

Anyone else feel this way?

Most of you guys are familiar with Jaeger-LeCoultre, at least enough to know that they make a fine watch. A lot of WIS’s out there consider them to be the best bang-for-buck manufacture out there, and for good reason. Their in-house movements are among the most affordable out there, with their Reverso watches gainly a lot of popularity for their unique design. I do like the Reversos, but the one that really caught my eye is the JLC Master Compressor Diving Pro Geographic.

This is a nice big sized watch at 46.3mm, and has a thick chunky titanium bezel that is unmistakably a Divers. The chunky crowns look beautiful, and are characteristic of the Master Compressor watches from JLC. This bad boy goes 300m deep. There is also Master Compressor Diving GMT and Chrono that are 44mm around which have 1000m water resistance.

The coolest thing about this watch is the mechanical depth guage. This watch will tell you how deep in the water you are! Here are the tech specs:

Diameter: 46.3mm
Case: Titanium
Movement: Calibre 979
Power Reserve: 48 hr
Water Resistance: 300m

I’ve also posted a pic of the 44mm Master Compressor Diving Chronograph below. This watch does NOT have the mechanical depth guage and though is still a beautiful watch, not quite as remarkable as the Diving Pro Geo.

Finally here is the video of the guys at JLC doing live water tests with the watch!

Cool video animation of the inside of a JLC Reverso watch… neat stuff! Check out the other videos on the Blog’s Youtube page… we have all sorts of neat videos up!