Green Japan Edition 270.8.54 Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Duoface

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, Japan always gets the best stuff. But it was even true two decades ago. The Reverso has been around since 1931. It’s seen many editions come and go, probably most notably in the rose gold ‘saga’, where many complications were crammed in this case. So many, in fact, that a handful of the great ones have been largely forgotten. A green dial Reverso was, until just a few years ago, something very uncommon. A green dial entered the range in ’21, but prior, there were just two editions and 326 examples in total (not counting marble). A run of 26 examples in British racing green from 2015 with an engraving of Westminster, and this: the 300-example 270.8.54 Japan Edition in green from 1999. It is, effectively, peak neo-vintage Reverso.

The Japan Editions were released in 300 examples just a few years after the Duoface case was created in 1994, and one could choose between blue, red, and green, while the secondary face remained a silver guilloché for all. The secondary (here green) colorful dial is a delight was well, extremely vintage-leaning with three guilloché sections, sword hands, and cream luminous Arabic numerals. It is such a scarce and relatively old release, from a time when watch media was a few magazines, that many aren’t aware it exists. It was never advertised outside Japan, and the individual watches have just been slowly surfacing in the market occasionally. Wildly, for being rare, unknown, and quite interesting, they’re not really massively valuable. 15K US isn’t exactly a value proposition, but it’s not as astonishing as you might’ve grown accustomed to expect.

And there really is something about a green Reverso that creates a harmony. A Reverso is tasteful, always welcome, perennially elegant. Green is modest. Green is refined. The human eye can seen more shades of green than any other hue, we’ve evolved to differentiate grass from a tree from a lion. It’s the exact middle of the wavelengths our eyes can see and therefore calming. A green 720S is welcome in any city, where a yellow 720S is for Dubai. Do you see what I’m getting at? The Reverso was made for green, and Japan got to it about two decades before the rest of us. As per usual.

This example presents in excellent condition. The case has a light and even superficial wear, hairlines and a peppering of patina, nothing more. The engravings on back are all perfectly deep. It comes with its presentation box, but no papers, from a well-regarded Malaysian retailer.