Jaeger-LeCoultre

Some further pics and comments

 

JLC has always been one of the watch makers I liked best, and in my collection of around 30 watches, it has the biggest share with 5 pieces (Reverso Duoface, Master Ultra Thin, Master Geographic, Master Hometime, and now the Reverso Memory).
The Reverso Duoface was the first good watch I owned, and until today it's my favorite piece, even if it is by far not the most expensive one in the collection.
While the feature of having two dials obviously defeats the original purpose of the Reverso of protecting the crystal by flipping it over, I was always fascinated by having two dials with different displays/complications and felt tht this is the best use of the Reverso case mechanism.
The Reverso Memory was a watch I had been interested in a long time, and I had a few opportunities to get one over the last 10 years. But each time there was another watch which was a bit higher on my list due to the fact that the Memory would have created a bit of a redundancy with the Duoface. Nevertheless I looked out for it continuously, and at the end of last year, another one popped up in one of my searches, and this time, the timing was perfect, so I finally ordered it.
The recto side of the watch offer hours, minutes and seconds. All three hands are blued and filled with lume. While this may seem to be a rather unusul combination for a modern dress watch, it gives the watch a nice vintage/sportive charme, and it also makes sense given the complication of the other side. The verso side has a continuously running 60-minute hand (also with lume) which can be reset to zero by pressing on the pusher on the side of the case. While this is obviously not as useful as a real chronograph function, I expect it to be useful enough in everyday life, where measuring time intervals in minutes is sufficient, like measuring parking times etc. It's somewhat similar to the Zenith Retrotimer, which I also like quite a bit.
Since I don't have a good camera, and am not good at taking pictures anyway, I will refer to the following post by AndrewD which has some excellent pictures of another Reverso Memory.

jlc.watchprosite.com

Instead, I will talk a bit about the wearability and in particular the size of the watch.
In the pictures below, you can see how the Memory compares to the Duoface, which itself is rather on the small side. As you can see, the Memory is a bit thicker, but it is smaller in length and width.

When I bought the watch, I was aware of the fact that the Memory is rather small, but I wanted to get it anyway. And it turned out that it actually sits on my wrist quite well, and doesn't feel  or look too small.

It seems that the wrist-presence and wearability of Reversos in general is a bit difficult to predict. Some of the larger watches in my collection are a Panerai Luminor Base and a Blancpain FF, and  while they are pretty much the maximum of what I can wear reasonably on my wrist, they do not look or feel uncomfortable. At the same time the Duoface and even the Memory don't look lost on my wrist. Funny enough, I was trying on a Reverso Rouge last year, and it did not sit well on my wrist, and also looked too large to me.

The overall comfort of the Reverso Memory is surely also supported by the very nice bracelet, which was very easy to adjust to my size due to the fact that the links are not joined by friction pins, but by small springbars.





The deployant clasp sits nicely at the center of my wrist, and the rounded links are very flexible and don't seem to have a tendency to pinch my hair. Although I initially thought I would replace the bracelet with a leather strap, I currently tend to keep the watch on the bracelet.

Overall I am extremely happy with the purchase, and I have to say that JLC has delivered again in a wonderful way.

And now to finish the post on a rather funny note, here are two (!) lume shots of the watch, one of the front, and one of the back: