Jaeger-LeCoultre introduced its first timepiece with a minute repeater 150 years ago, and its most iconic wristwatch, the Reverso, 90 years ago. This year, the Swiss manufacture pays homage to both milestones with a single horological chef d’oeuvre, the Reverso Tribute Minute Repeater, unveiled today at the New York opening of the brand’s Atelier d’Antoine workshop.

The watch comes as a sequel of sorts to the now-legendary Reverso Répétition Minutes ? released in 1994 in the waning days of the Quartz Crisis and anticipating the subsequent renaissance of mechanical watchmaking ? which contained the first rectangular minute repeater movement. That watch also represented the first time in its long history that Jaeger-LeCoultre had miniaturized a minute repeater caliber to fit a wristwatch, despite its historical expertise in making chiming timekeepers: today, its archive contains more than 200 chiming movements.
Jaeger-LeCoultre’s latest minute repeater movement, actually a revised version of its existing Caliber 944, is housed in a rose-gold version of the classical swiveling Reverso case, measuring 51.1 mm x 31 mm in dimensions and 11.41 mm thick, with the Art Deco lines and flourishes that have distinguished the Reverso since its initial release in 1931. Also in traditional Reverso fashion, the front and back dial each embody a distinctive character that sets each apart from the another. The front face is skeletonized to reveal the co...