Flip it, then leave it alone
By Julien Moreau, Geneva ยท
The polo story is told so often that I suspect nobody listens any more, so I will keep it short: 1931, British officers in India, cracked crystals, and a case that swivels over in its cradle to protect the glass. The solid steel back was meant to take the knocks, and before long it was taking monograms instead.
That is still the best reason to own a Reverso. This Classic Medium keeps the closed back blank and waiting for an engraver, and I would have it engraved, because a Reverso with an empty back is like a letter left unsigned. The case is 40.1 mm long and 8.5 mm thick, slim enough to vanish under a cuff, and the hand-wound 822A/2 drives a small seconds at six on a silver dial with the Art Deco railway track around it.
Forty-two hours of reserve means you will wind it most mornings, which I happen to enjoy, but some people find it a chore. The 30 m rating is for rain, not for the lake. And do not flip it constantly to amuse people; the mechanism is robust but it is not a fidget toy.
At seventy-seven hundred to eighty-three hundred and fifty dollars, it is one of the best-value pieces of genuine design history on sale anywhere. Medium is the right size for most men, whatever the word suggests.