The Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso is one of the few genuinely recognisable watches: a design that hasn’t deviated in its basic premise for 80 years – although it has proliferated to accommodate a baffling range of sizes, styles and functions. Now there’s another one to put in your Filofax: a boutique-only 100-piece run of the Reverso Tribute Duoface, and as the headline says, it comes with a nice new strip of cordovan leather attached.

Except this isn’t just a pair of new shoes for an existing watch. Jaeger-LeCoultre has (for reasons best known to themselves), increased the case size for this special edition, up to 49.4mm by 29.9mm. The standard Reverso Tribute Duoface is 42.9mm by 25.5mm; purely from a production point of view there is an amazing variety in Reverso case sizes – whoever runs their casemaking CNC machines has to be paying attention, thats for sure. No two “big” Reversos are the same size; the Calendar, the Classic Large, the Tribute Duoface – all slightly different. 

This new Casa Fagliano edition (the name refers to the Argentinian bootmakers who have provided the two-tone brown leather strap, and serves to remind us that once upon a time people possibly wore these watches while playing polo) is also quite a bit thicker than the standard Tribute Duoface with which it shares a movement – 12.6mm versus 9.2mm. This is a bit odd: even given that you’d expect it to be bigger in all directions, that is disproportionately thicker. Maybe that’s what people have been asking for. 

Whether it is or isn’t, what else have we got here? It’s a Duoface so that means a dark and a light dial, flippable with the iconic reversible case construction. This time the main, “front” display has the slate grey sunburst dial, and the “back” side, with the 24-hour indicator for displaying a second timezone, is in white. That’s the opposite of the standard model. The decoration is lovely – hobnail guilloché on the back dial, railroad minute tracks and those lovely faceted dauphine hands and hour markers. It’s so classic.