Wearing a classic tourbillon-based dress watch is a very distinctive flavor of decadence. In short, the person who wears such a timepiece is seeking to show off and be discreet at the same time. Dress watches, by definition, are formal but not overly showy. Visible tourbillons on the other hand are indeed an element of purist horology, but when worn, they serve to show off wealth and status as much as one’s taste in hobbies. Provided you can afford it, choosing a dressier timepiece with a tourbillon is a nuanced way to promote your good fortune while not rubbing it in other people’s faces. If your luxury timepiece spends much of its time hidden under your sleeve, how bombastic could the wearer be? This is the modern theory behind a timepiece like the Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Tribute Duoface Tourbillon, as pictured in steel above.

After years of wearing really large, showy tourbillons, handling something as restrained (albeit not boring) as the Reverso Tribute Duoface Tourbillon can require some adjustment. It is as though the watch industry tried to train people that high-end movements needed to be full of exotic complications and many parts. Those watches can be satisfying, but so can something like this manually wound time-only (with dual faces that can each indicate a different time) flying tourbillon in a modest and elegant package. I suppose it doesn’t help the wearer’s pulse that Jaeger-LeCoultre decided to go with a gray dial — a hue decidedly meant to fit in (as opposed to standing out), but this watch is very fun to play with. That’s because you can idly fidget with the watch by turning the dial over and over again. And why wouldn’t you? A modest-looking super watch is still a super watch, and the timepiece’s pretty (and actually rectangular-shaped) caliber 847 tourbillon movement in this “Tribute-size” Reverso Duoface lends it a very fine character. Really what sells it for me is the comfortable wearing experience, overall legibility, classic personality, and unassuming luxury that Jaeger-LeCoultre is still well-known for.

Jaeger-LeCoultre introduces the Reverso Tribute Duoface Tourbillon in steel, as well as an 18k pink-gold version for 2024. More versions may come in the future. You can see our aBlogtoWatch coverage of the 18k pink-gold Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Tribute Duoface Tourbillon here. That article also has a more in-depth discussion of the in-house movement. Both versions of the Duoface Tourbillon have cases that are 27.4mm wide, 9.14mm thick, and with a 45.5mm-long lug-to-lug distance (and 30 meters of water resistance). This is somewhat larger than the most simple model (meant to be fairly close in size to the original Reverso watches from the 1930s) in the Reverso Tribute collection, but still very small. To read more about the Reverso I just mentioned, you can see my hands-on article with the Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Tribute Monoface watch on aBlogtoWatch. You might also be interested in aBlogtoWatch’s coverage of the Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Tribute Chronograph watch here.

While this gray and steel Reverso Tribute Duoface Tourbillon may look demure, it is actually really fun to play with. That goes for just about any of the Reverso Duoface watches – that (as the term implies) have two faces. Here was have an interpretation of the “day/night” dial theme. The idea is that one side of the watch is light-colored and meant for daytime activities, and the darker side is for nighttime and social activities. Accordingly, the white-colored dial on the open-worked side of the watch is better examined in strong light. You have an off-center dial for the time above the underside of the tourbillon cage. There is also a small AM/PM (day/night) indicator located on the upper right side of the dial. This comes in handy so that you can truly use this watch to track two timezones, and not have to recall if it is AM or PM in the alternate timezone.

The dials are crisp and precise, and as legible as they can be given the design. I’ve always loved the combination of Jaeger-LeCoultre’s rectangular case and Dauphine “delta-style” hands. It is just a really attractive look to me, and such hands also happen to specialize in being legible in small spaces, which is ideal for the Reverso dial’s relatively small area available for minute hands. The movement inside the Reverso Tribute Duoface Tourbillon is the Jaeger-LeCoultre caliber 847. The movement is manually wound and has a power reserve of 38 hours while operating at 3Hz. I would have liked a bit more power reserve, but the movement is rather petite (it has one mainspring barrel), and is just 3.9mm thick. The 60-second flying tourbillon is among the nicer-looking ones out there at this price, and it also appears engineered to be quite solid, even though it is designed to be bridgeless from one end. A special mention to the Clos du Paris decoration on the open-worked side of the dial, which is done using hand-operated guilloché engraving machines.

For those who love elegance and horology, a timepiece like this Reverso Tourbillon is a compelling option. Such a category of watch is not a particular small class (there are many options), but having a tourbillon in Reverso form is always tasteful but unexpected. Jaeger-LeCoultre has certainly made much more exotic tourbillon systems, but what comes from doing that is a lot of competence. That means these simple tourbillons are probably rather reliable. At least logic would suggest that, and I know that Jaeger-LeCoultre takes its watchmaking finesse seriously. I just think this is a cool watch, and I want to see it on more wrists. I think, in general, the aBlogtoWatch team has been impressed with our ongoing experience with the various new Reverso Tribute family of products. With the Reverso Tribute Duoface Tourbillon in steel, Jaeger-LeCoultre includes two straps. It even pairs the straps with each of the dials. That means a black alligator strap for the white-dial side and a textured calfskin leather strap for the gray-dial side.

There is currently a $32,000 USD price difference between the 18k pink-gold reference Q392242J Reverso Tribute Duoface Tourbillon ($143,000 USD) and this steel reference Q392845J. It does feel like Jaeger-LeCoultre is putting much of the timepiece’s value in the in-house mechanical movement, which makes sense (though it is certainly luxury-priced). For the most discreet package, steel is the way to go for the case material (even if the package still has an over-six-figure cost associated with it), though both models are truly lovely on the wrist. Price for the Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Tribute Duoface Tourbillon in steel is $111,000 USD. Learn more at the Jaeger-LeCoultre website.