Jaeger-LeCoultre

In its 175 years of History and Life, JLC offered quite a lot of Rectangular and Round Watches...

Among the Rectangular watches, we had the Uniplan ( which were also round watches ), the Duo Plan, and, of course, the most famous..Reverso.

But, at the same time, JLC offered several very interesting and great round watches, as the Pilot Watches, the Future Matic, the Triple Date, the Memovoxes, without forgetting the Gephysic, and Geomatic...

An ad from 1937 ( Credit to Marv ):



2 ads from 1934 ( Same Credit pic ):





Both Rectangular and Round Cases were pure marvels...









Credit pic: Dino, for this Triple Date Box and Papers...





So, during around 50 years, JLC offered a wide variety of watches, rectangular or round, complicated, or simple, sometimes original, always elegant...

Well, Watches for al tastes, but great tastes!

In the mid 70ies, JLC suffered with the Quartz era, and for the next 15 years, nothing very interesting to see till the Grand Reveil, this weird Perpetual Calendar, in 1989.



A few years before the Grand Reveil, JLC relaunched the Reverso...

Then, in the 90ies, till 2002, it was a bit the reign of the Reverso...

Do you remember thses gorgeous RG Reverso in LE, offering all the possible complications, and beginning with an Ode to the Reverso ( the 60eme ) ?



Looks like all the Creativity, the efforts were concentraded on the Reverso, at this moment, and that Round Watches, even if they existed, were a bit secondary for JLC...

Of course there were some nice round watches, as the Master Control, RDM, Geographic, and Memovox, but really, the Reverso was the King!

In the Early 2000, it was a bit the same...

JLC wanted to develop the Reverso in the platinum case with some great watches as the 70eme, the Reverso Platinum Nr 1, Nr 2, and the Extraordinary Skeleton Tourbillon.







Although beautiful watches, these Platinum Reversos weren't successful, and JLC began to re equilibrate a bit the offer, with some interesting round watches...

The Master Compressor watches, since 2002, with the Memovox in 2002: ( Credit pic: Al )



The EWC and Amvoxes I, II and III, since 2005:









The Reverso wasn' forgotten by JLC, as the Squadra is the Rectangular Sporty offer...







Are you a Classic Guy?

Once again, Round or Rectangular?





Crazy About High End complications???

Once again, Rectangular or Round?





Equation of time, Perpetual Calendar, View of the sky, Tourbillon...Wow!

And this Gyro II?



The offer in round watches is also very appealing...

Minute Repeater...



Perpetual Calendar:

With Gyro Tourbillon:



Without Gyro Tourbillon, but skeleton:



Elusive Chrono?



So, my friends, are you more in love with Rectangular or Round watches???

Waiting for your answers,

Best.

Nicolas This message has been edited by amanico on 2008-11-19 00:13:27 This message has been edited by amanico on 2008-11-22 02:34:28

For me it's all about form follows function. All inside the watch goes round, and so should the case. There is somehow no real need for a square case, so it's more like a fashion thing. Current round watches are the evolution of many many decades; I like that. Don't get me wrong, I do like the Reverso, but prefer the round shapes. Oh yeah, and I'm probably old fashioned LOL.

Best,

Starman

So, the mix of the Rectangular and Round shape was and still is very tempting, but it is really a matter of taste.

I, for a long time, prefered the round shaped watches, as you...

BUT, now, I couldn' live without a rectangular watch in my collection, and the Reverso is a very fine example.

Another great rectangular piece is the PP Ten Days, the 5100 Reference.

Best.

Nicolas

Reverso

The majority of my watches are round, I guess that says it all. They just fits me better. Incidentally all my rectangular watches are all dress watch.

The Reverso 70eme.

And even if it is the only one, I wear it proudly and with a lot of pleasure!

I'd like to add a Second one, as a Lange Cabaret, or my Dream Watch, the 51OO Ten Days PP in WG, although...

But in its vast majority, my collection is built with ..Round Watches!

Best.

Nicolas

rectangular shape is the signature (i.e. reverso) for JLC, but round shape can match with different dresses and ocassions. cheers.

stefan

The Perfection of a round watch on the Beauty and strengh of a Rectangular Watch...

Huuuummm, Difficult to choose, indeed!

Best.

Nicolas

Nic, wow, you are right, you pic even makes me more difficult to make choice of which, i love both anyway... i think your question/post is not fair to all of us who are JLC fans... 

Stefan

I begin to regret having posted this topic...LOL

Looks like the answer is impossible to get! LOL

Best.

Nicolas

no problem Nic. I like your post anyway which makes me think, it is fun and stimulating indeed.

look forward to your another interesting post.

stefan

hi Nic, my choice is still to go for round again, just bougth another round JLC - ultra thin for my xmas present : >

stefan

The New or the old one?

The 38 or the 40mm?

Can't wait to see your pics.

Best.

Nicolas

PS: Huge congrats for this nice catch, BTW.

hi Nic,

it is the old model.

you know i was still thinking of which model to buy either old or new model (38mm or MGUT4). after wearing them on my wrist and carefully compariing their dial, size, movement and finishing, my final decision was still to go for old MUT because of relatively small size and much clearer dail with hand winding.

in fact this purchase was a bit unexpected and came a bit earlier, was thinking to get a new watch next april, anyway it is always a good excuse to get it early because of festive season coming : )))

stefan

Taking pics of this Beauty, and posting them ASAP, please!

Congrats, this is really a nice catch.

Best.

Nicolas

hi Nic, yes, I know that. in fact, I wanted to take some photos for my MUT with my previous reply, but did not do that because it seems the quality of the photos were not nice, anyway, here are the better ones. will try some more later.

stefan

And you managed to take some quite goods pics, here.

Thanks for your efforts.

You own a very nice specimen of a great dressy and elegant watch, with a nicely finished movement.

What more to ask?

Best, and once again, thanks.

Nicolas

hi Nic, I have taken several pics, only these three that I think are better and nice.

yes, I am very happy to have this for my xmas present and collection although it came a bit earlier than what I planned for.

now I have a MHT and a MUT now, both are round, I think the next one will likely be for rentangular  : )))

any good suggestion?

stefan

No message body

hi Nic, actually i quite like reverso SHT, but i already have MHT, it seems they are the same in terms of functionality although i understand the look is entirely different!

stefan

A nice come back to the roots?

Why not this one?



Pink Gold simple Reverso GT...

Tempting.

Best.

Nicolas This message has been edited by amanico on 2008-12-24 08:42:41

hi Nic, yes you are right, it is no necessary to go for complicated one, simple is always the best!

the pink gold looks really beautiful and tempting, it is really nice, but gold may not be good for daily wear?!

btw, can you send me pm if you roughly know how much of it costs? thanks so much for the advice once again.

in any case, need to save up first for new purchase : >

stefan

And this is not a bad choice at all.

I send you a PM right now.

Best.

Nicolas

SS would be nice as well : >

Once upon a time, I had a beautiful Reverso Grande Date on a bracelet.  It was a fine time piece in every respect, I just could not get use to it on my wrist.  When I would look at my wrist, the Reverso did not "sing to me."  My personal preference is round watches that are 40mm to 46mm (my EWC).  Anyway, when I would pull a watch from my winder in the morning, the Reverso never was calling me.

Casey, that was one good looking Reverso.  Too bad it spent so much time in storage.  I would have given my EWC a break every now and then for that Reverso.  But don't let my EWC hear that. Great photos by the way.

respo

I was never able to put a Reverso on a Bracelet, and I tried many times...

For me, The Reverso obligatory comes on a strap.

Me, Extremist? Nooooo!

Best.

Nicolas

I like the pics of the RGD on the steel bracelet.