Located at IRON 23, the exhibition will run from November 3 to November 22, 2023. The 'Reverso Stories' exhibition arrives just ahead of the grand opening of Jaeger-LeCoultre's new flagship boutique on Madison Avenue.

A fascinating retrospective that leads visitors through nine decades of timeless modernity, ‘Reverso Stories’ reveals the craftsmanship, innovation and design behind the celebrated timepiece and also explores the wider creative and cultural universe surrounding it.

Visitors will discover the Reverso story through four key themes: Story of an Icon, Style and Design, Innovation, and Craftsmanship. The experience is enhanced by an immersive digital art installation by Korean artist Yiyun Kang; a space devoted to the video series ‘In the Making’, which reveals the secrets of the 180 crafts practiced in the Manufacture; a room dedicated to Japanese artist Hokusai, whose works have been reproduced on Reverso timepieces; the 1931 Café serving an Art Deco-inspired menu; and hands-on watchmaking Discovery Workshops within the Atelier d’Antoine.

In addition to historic timepieces, the exhibits will include the 2023 Reverso models launched at Watches and Wonders, and two exceptional new Reverso Tribute Enamel models that will be launched during the New York season of ‘Reverso Stories’.

Exploring Nine Decades of Timeless Modernity through Four Stories

Since 1833, Jaeger-LeCoultre has expressed its inventive spirit through the creation of many world firsts – including the legendary, patented swivelling case of the Reverso watch. This timeless expression of Art Deco style was born in 1931 on the polo fields of India, with the idea of a case that could be flipped over to protect the watch while playing ‘the sport of kings’. With its revolutionary design and immaculate craftsmanship, the Reverso was immediately embraced by trendsetters from all walks of life, quickly transcending its original purpose and, over the decades, becoming widely recognised as an icon of 20^th-century design.

The story of Reverso is told in four chapters. The Story of an Icon, retells the tale of the Reverso’s origins through rarely seen archive materials and milestone Reverso watches from the Jaeger-LeCoultre collection. The Story of Style & Design looks at the Reverso watch as a quintessential example of Art Deco design that remains timelessly modern today, expressing the spirit of the Golden Ratio. The Story of Innovation highlights the insatiable spirit of invention that characterises the Jaeger-LeCoultre Manufacture, from the first brilliant idea for a reversible case, to the development of ground-breaking complications designed specifically for its rectangular shape. The Story of Craftsmanship pays tribute to the engravers, gem-setters, enamellers and guillochage masters of the Manufacture’s Métiers Rares™ atelier, revealing how they have unleashed the full potential of the Reverso as a canvas for artistic expression and personalised messages.

Art Meets Watchmaking

Set at the heart of the exhibition, Yiyun Kang’s multimedia installation, Origin, was specially commissioned by Jaeger-LeCoultre under its Made of Makers program; a series of artistic partnerships that expands the dialogue between watchmaking and other art forms. Recognized for her immersive audio-visual and projection-mapping installations that recast space with moving image and sound, Yiyun Kang is one of the most active and acclaimed Korean digital media artists in today’s international art scene. Projected onto a very large three-dimensional screen, Origin explores the Golden Ratio – a fundamental concept regarded as the universal signifier of aesthetic harmony in both nature and man-made design – which has been the guiding spirit of the Reverso since 1931.  

A Celebration of Craftsmanship

Showcasing the 180 crafts housed under one roof at the Manufacture Jaeger-LeCoultre, two spaces are dedicated to particular aspects of the craft and art of watchmaking.  One room, ‘In the Making’ is devoted to a series of short films that take viewers behind the scenes, each focusing on a single craft, including rarely seen stages of the watchmaking process, with voiceovers that explain the artisans’ processes in their own words. The ‘Hokusai’ room celebrates the master enamellers of the Manufacture’s Métiers Rares™ atelier and pays homage to the 19^th-century Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai, whose works have been reproduced as enamelled miniatures on the case-backs of a series of Reverso watches.

An Educational Journey

'Reverso Stories' offers visitors a deeper exploration of watchmaking through the Atelier d'Antoine, a hands-on educational workshop that focuses on the Reverso. This Discovery Workshop is available to all visitors by appointment.

Indulge in Pastries Inspired by the Golden Ratio

Completing visitors’ immersion into the spirit of Art Deco, the 1931 Café is an invitation to guests to pause and enjoy a choice of crafted pastries designed by award-winning French pastry chef Nina Metayer, a collaboration under the ‘Made of Makers’ program, inspired by the principles of the Golden Ratio and ingredients from the Vallée de Joux.

The ‘Reverso Stories’ Exhibition will take place from November 3 to November 22, 2023 at IRON 23, located at 29 W 23rd Street, NY 10010. Entry is open to the public and free of charge.

Opening hours and admission:

Tuesday to Thursday 11am until 7pm

Friday and Saturday 10am to 7pm

Sunday 11am to 6pm

Closed on Monday

Guests will be able to walk in or book guided visits online at: Jaeger-LeCoultre - Theme - THE REVERSO STORIES EXHIBITION 

MADE OF MAKERS PROGRAMME TO CELEBRATE THE DESIGN OF REVERSO

Continuing to expand its cultural universe, Jaeger-LeCoultre announces the latest instalment in its Made of Makers programme: a new collaboration with the Korean digital media artist Yiyun Kang.

Expanding the Dialogue Between Watchmaking and the Arts

Through a series of collaborations with artists, designers and craftsmen from disciplines outside watchmaking, Made of Makers explores and extends the dialogue that naturally exists between horology and art. The programme focuses on artists who share Jaeger-LeCoultre’s values of creativity, expertise and precision, with nature at its core, exploring new forms of artistic expression through different and often unexpected materials and media. Like the watchmakers of La Grande Maison, these artists and innovators have a deep respect for the past as their creative foundation and a springboard for their trailblazing work. In 2023, Jaeger-LeCoultre further explores the world of contemporary art with an unexpected new collaboration.

A Unique Artistic Vision Expressed Through Exceptional Technological Skill

Recognised for her immersive audio-visual installations that recast space with moving image and sound, Yiyun Kang is one of the most active and talented Korean digital media artists in today’s international art scene, as well as a highly respected teacher and researcher.

In both her art practice and her research, Yiyun Kang is exploring the intersection of art, technology, and experience to investigate what she describes as “the in-between – between the finite and infinite, reality and unreality, surface and depth, absence and presence”. Valuing art as a medium for communication, she invites us, through her work, to contemplate where the boundaries are and what those boundaries mean – for humanity and the important questions that we face in today’s world.

Through the relatively new art form of projection-mapping, Yiyun Kang’s works play with the symbiotic relationship between moving images, narrative, and space beyond the conventional screen. From relatively small-scale works created for indoor environments to very large site-specific works created for public outdoor spaces, these immersive environments involve the viewers as participants, taking them into another dimension; the effect is awe-inspiring, and occasionally disconcerting as the sense of space, dimension and time is dissolved and re-formed. Fractal geometries move and flow in a way that seems almost organic, lending a grace and fluidity to each work that makes it seem effortlessly natural. However, as with watchmaking, the beauty of the work is underpinned by intellectual rigour, complex mathematical calculations and extreme precision.

A 3D-Video Sculpture Inspired by The Golden Ratio

For each Made of Makers collaboration, Jaeger-LeCoultre commissions an original work, inviting the artist to express a theme of interest to the Maison in a new way, through their particular craft. To better understand what the 2023 theme of the Golden Ratio means to Jaeger-LeCoultre, Yiyun Kang spent time at the Manufacture in the Vallée de Joux, gaining a deeper understanding of the Maison’s home, its values and the process of watchmaking.

“It was fascinating to see how the Reverso was made at the Manufacture. As an artist who works at the intersection of creativity and technology, I found it very interesting that the original design of Reverso was driven instinctively by the Golden Ratio, and I sought out scientific research that could explain why humanity has been drawn to the concept for so many centuries,” says the artist. “Jaeger-LeCoultre inspired me to explore, to draw a continuous line from the natural world into my digital space.”

This became the starting point for the newly commissioned work, titled Origin. Presented in a very large three-dimensional screen that has been purpose-built for installation in public spaces, Origin is a tribute to the ubiquity of the Golden ratio in the world around us. Through its narrative, it builds a parallel between the symmetry in nature and the geometry of Art Deco design.

“There are astounding examples from nature that literally represent the Phi number, the Golden Ratio, in their organisms,” Yiyun Kang observes. “Perhaps we are attracted to it because it identifies the origin of life – not just an aesthetic pattern, but an anchor for evolution. Seen in this light, the meaning of Golden Ratio becomes even more significant for us now that we are living in an Anthropocene age.”

A Seoul Debut Followed by a World Tour

Origin will make its debut in Seoul in June, before being presented at a series of Jaeger-LeCoultre events in key cities around the world, such as Chengdu, Singapore, New York and Zurich.