Mother’s Day is on May 8, and watch aficionados know what that means: the opportunity to express their appreciation to moms, wives, sisters, and other important ladies with a well-chosen timepiece. Between now and the big day, we will spotlight some notable ladies’ watches we’ve discovered at this year’s watch fairs. Today we focus on a timepiece born of a collaboration between a classic Jaeger-LeCoultre Swiss watch brand and a designer familiar to women of means and taste: The Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso by Christian Louboutin.
The iconic Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso watch turns 85 this year, and the Swiss brand unveiled a plethora of new Reverso models for men and ladies at SIHH. Among the most notable of the ladies’ models are these timepieces, bearing the joint signature of Jaeger-LeCoultre and Christian Louboutin (below, inspecting his work at Jaeger-LeCoultre’s manufacture in Le Sentier, Switzerland), one of the fashion world’s most revered luxury footwear designers — the newest options in JLC’s customizable “Atelier Reverso” series.
Louboutin used as his “canvas” for these creations the Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Classic Duetto, available in two case sizes and featuring the Reverso collection’s hallmark two dial faces with swiveling case. The front features the traditional dial and Art Deco-influenced lines of the Duetto family (see below), while the back dial is framed by two rows of diamonds and shows off the wildly creative use of colors and textures all too familiar to fans of Louboutin’s coveted shoes.
One model’s back dial features a shimmering, iridescent orange-tones sunburst pattern, with the iridescent theme continuing onto the leather strap, which displays a range of green, blue, and purple tones.
As a designer used to doing interesting things with leather, Louboutin has paid special attention to the watches’ straps as well as the dials. In addition to the eye-catching iridescence of the one pictured above, he conceived for another model a clear, transparent plastic strap, playing off the ankle-flattering transparency in several of his shoe collections, and pairing it with a mirrored back dial.
Yet another style, examples pictured below, pairs a textured mother-of-pearl dial with another distinctively original strap, whose signature cutout shapes evoke the look of a Christian Louboutin shoe.
