FLOAT 100 · Watches · No. 62
Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Tribute Gyrotourbillon
A watch built in 1931 to survive polo matches in British India was asked, 85 years later, to carry a tourbillon spinning on two axes, one cage inside another, the inner one turning once every 12.6 seconds.
- Year
- 2016 (Tribute Gyrotourbillon)
- Maker
- Jaeger-LeCoultre
- By price in watches
- 17 of 100
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Create a free account- Maker
- Jaeger-LeCoultre, Le Sentier, Switzerland
- Introduced
- 2016, for the Reverso's 85th anniversary
- Reference
- 3946420 (also cited as Q3946420 and 217.6.H9)
- Edition
- 75 pieces in platinum (one source says 70)
- Case
- Platinum Reverso case, 51.1 x 31 mm, 12.4 mm thick
- Movement
- In-house manual-wind caliber 179, 385 parts, 3 Hz, 40-hour power reserve
- Tourbillon
- Bi-axial flying Gyrotourbillon: outer cage turns once a minute, inner cage once every 12.6 seconds
- Two faces
- Front: white dial with day/night indicator and tourbillon. Back: open-worked movement with a second time zone
- Launch price
- €270,000 before tax, reported as about US$300,000 (one source gives €277,000)
A polo watch, reconsidered
The Reverso began as an answer to a practical problem. On a trip to India in 1930, the Swiss businessman César de Trey was challenged by British army officers who played polo to produce a watch that could survive the game. Back in Europe he partnered with Jacques-David LeCoultre, and the French industrial designer René-Alfred Chauvot was given the job of designing a case. On March 4, 1931, Chauvot filed patent No. 712.868 for, in the company's translation, a watch capable of sliding in its support and being completely turned over. The name Reverso, Latin for 'I turn,' was registered that November, and the first watches reached customers that winter.
The idea was simple: flip the case over and the steel back takes the knocks, not the crystal. The rectangular Art Deco case became Jaeger-LeCoultre's signature, and over the decades the company used the blank back as a canvas for engraving, enamel and, eventually, a second dial.
The Gyrotourbillon belongs to a very different part of the company's history. In 2004 Jaeger-LeCoultre introduced the Gyrotourbillon I, which the company describes as its first grande complication wristwatch, in a round case. Its defining feature was a tourbillon that turns on two axes at once, one cage nested inside another, so the balance is rotated through every position rather than in a single plane. (One account dates the first Gyrotourbillon to 2005; most sources give 2004.)
The tourbillon makers
Published accounts credit the watchmaker Eric Coudray with developing the Gyrotourbillon. One review names Coudray and Magali Metrailler as the designers of the original 2004 watch. A design sketch of the Reverso Tribute Gyrotourbillon published with one 2016 article is credited to C. Johann Sauty.
In 2008 the company put the mechanism into a Reverso for the first time with the Reverso Gyrotourbillon 2, a large watch driven by the caliber 174. A third Gyrotourbillon, with the caliber 176, went back into a round Master case. When the fourth arrived in 2016, it was not called Gyrotourbillon 4. One article reports that the company avoided the number because of its unfavorable associations in the Chinese market and called the watch a 'Tribute' to the Reverso's 85th anniversary instead.
The 2016 brief was to make the complication wearable. The new watch is about 30 percent slimmer in both width and thickness than the Gyrotourbillon 2. The round tourbillon carriage itself was kept, and the surrounding parts were slimmed so it could sit in the rectangular case.
How the watch is built
The caliber 179 is wound by hand, made in-house, and runs at 3 Hz (21,600 vibrations per hour) with two mainspring barrels and a 40-hour power reserve. Sources count 385 components; one gives 52 jewels. The tourbillon is a flying design driven from the outside, which makes it appear to float in its opening. The outer carriage turns once a minute and the inner carriage once every 12.6 seconds.
That inner speed is the headline change from the 2008 watch. Two 2016 reports say the Gyrotourbillon 2's inner cage turned once every 18.75 seconds; a 2023 auction catalog says 24 seconds. The sources do not agree, but all show the Tribute's inner cage turning much faster. The balance itself is not round: it is shaped like a double anchor, recalling the company's logo, to cut air resistance. The hairspring is hemispherical rather than the fully spherical spring of the 2008 watch.
The front shows a grained white dial with Dauphine hands, a day/night indicator at about 11 o'clock, a rotating seconds disc marked with a blue arrow, and the tourbillon. Flip the case and the back shows an open-worked movement with hand-decorated, engraved bridges and a second time zone with a 24-hour day/night indication. The platinum case has sapphire crystals on both sides and is water resistant to 3 bar (30 meters).
The Gyrotourbillon belongs to the company's Hybris Mechanica group of high complications. The platinum Tribute Gyrotourbillon carries a silvered dial and, by most accounts, was limited to 75 pieces; one review gives 70. A prototype photographed by one reviewer was numbered 00/75.
From the Geneva salon to the saleroom
The watch was unveiled in Geneva in January 2016 at the SIHH fair. Launch prices reported at the time were €270,000 before tax, or about US$300,000; one article gave €277,000. One reference wiki notes that this was about $50,000 less than its predecessor.
Production of the 75 pieces did not all happen in 2016. One example offered at auction in Hong Kong in November 2023, number 33 of 75 and dated about 2019, came with a warranty dated December 4, 2019, and its original Jaeger-LeCoultre purchase invoice from Korea. It carried an estimate of HK$550,000 to 1,100,000, given as $70,500 to $141,000, and sold for HK$952,500. The auction house did not publish a U.S. dollar result.
For comparison, its predecessor set a mark in 2016: a pink gold Reverso Gyrotourbillon 2, number 4 of 75, sold at auction in New York for $255,750, above its $240,000 high estimate. That is a different watch and is listed here only as context.
Why collectors care
The Reverso is one of the few watch shapes that most people recognize on sight, and the Gyrotourbillon is the most complex thing Jaeger-LeCoultre had built into it. The Tribute version made that combination smaller, faster and easier to wear, while keeping the trick that has defined the case since 1931: one side for the dial, the other for something else.
Because it was made in a small numbered run over several years, individual examples show up with different papers and delivery dates. Collectors look for the edition number on the case, the warranty date, and the full set of original accessories.
The numbers
- Reference
- 3946420 (Q3946420, 217.6.H9)
- Caliber
- Jaeger-LeCoultre 179, manual wind, 385 parts, 3 Hz, 40-hour reserve, two barrels
- Case size
- 51.1 x 31 mm, 12.4 mm thick
- Case material
- Platinum, sapphire crystals front and back
- Water resistance
- 3 bar (30 m)
- Tourbillon speeds
- Outer cage 60 seconds, inner cage 12.6 seconds
- Production
- From 2016; limited to 75 pieces (one source says 70)
Timeline
On a trip to India, César de Trey is challenged by British army officers to make a watch that can survive polo.
René-Alfred Chauvot files patent No. 712.868 for a watch case that slides and turns over.
The Reverso name is registered; the first watches are delivered that winter.
Jaeger-LeCoultre introduces the caliber 410, its own rectangular movement for the Reverso.
The company is officially renamed Jaeger-LeCoultre.
Jaeger-LeCoultre becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of the Richemont group.
The Gyrotourbillon I, the company's first grande complication wristwatch, is introduced in a round case.
The Reverso Gyrotourbillon 2, with the caliber 174, puts the mechanism in a Reverso case for the first time.
The Reverso Tribute Gyrotourbillon is unveiled at SIHH in Geneva for the Reverso's 85th anniversary, limited to 75 platinum pieces.
A pink gold Reverso Gyrotourbillon 2 sells for $255,750 at auction in New York.
Warranty date of Tribute Gyrotourbillon number 33 of 75, sold new with a Jaeger-LeCoultre invoice from Korea.
Number 33 of 75 sells at auction in Hong Kong for HK$952,500.
The world in 2016
The UN lifts sanctions on Iran after inspectors confirm it has dismantled key parts of its nuclear program.
The United Kingdom votes to leave the European Union.
NASA's Juno spacecraft enters orbit around Jupiter.
Rio de Janeiro opens the first Summer Olympics held in South America.
The Chicago Cubs win the World Series, ending a 108-year drought.
Donald Trump is elected the 45th president of the United States.
Price record
| Date | Price | Kind |
|---|---|---|
| Jan 2016 | $300,000 | Asking price, not a saleLaunch retail price reported as €270,000, about US$300,000. |
| Nov 2023 | $122,004 | Sold at auctionAt auction in Hong Kong: HKD 952,500 (including buyer's premium), shown in USD at the Federal Reserve monthly average (1 HKD = 0.1281 USD). |
| Nov 25, 2023 | $70,500 | Estimate, not a saleNumber 33 of 75, circa 2019, Hong Kong: low estimate of HK$550,000 to 1,100,000 ($70,500 to $141,000). Sold for HK$952,500; no USD result published. |
This is an asking price, not a sale. It is what a seller wanted on the date shown. Asking prices often sit above what buyers pay, but an ask is not a ceiling: a sale can land on either side of it. It is not a value.
By reference price, Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Tribute Gyrotourbillon is number 17 of 100 in the watches entries of the FLOAT 100. 54 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (62 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.
Did you know
- The name Reverso is Latin for 'I turn.'
- The watch was reportedly not called Gyrotourbillon 4 because the number four carries unlucky associations in China.
- The balance wheel is shaped like a double anchor, echoing the Jaeger-LeCoultre logo, to reduce air resistance.
- The Tribute version is about 30 percent slimmer, in both width and thickness, than the Reverso Gyrotourbillon 2 of 2008.
- Its launch price was reported at about $50,000 below its predecessor's.
- One example sold new in Korea in late 2019, more than three years after the model was unveiled.
How this page is made
- The figure
- One reference price, shown with its own kind. FLOAT does not average it with anything or adjust it for time.
- Realized or not
- A realized price is a completed sale. An asking price, an estimate and a price-guide value are not sales, and are labeled as such wherever they appear.
- The story
- Researched from published records and checked fact by fact. Updated Oct 3, 2026.
- Archive
- Oct 5, 2026