Ever wondered what makes your watch tick? For timepiece aficionados, there’s nothing quite like getting an up-close look at the intricacy and painstaking precision of a mechanical complication.

This winter Swiss watchmaker Jaeger-LeCoultre is offering visitors to Covent Garden the opportunity to do just that. Popping up from 15 to 24 December 2022, the Reverso Stories watchmaking experience pays homage to the house’s most famous style – and reveals the story behind its unique swivelling case.

Comprised of three distinct areas, the exhibition begins with Spacetime: an immersive installation by American artist Michael Murphy that ‘explodes’ the Reverso movement to play on the notions of the three physical dimensions and the fourth dimension of time.

The centrepiece of the exhibition, meanwhile, will be Reverso Stories. This more classic space will provide a retrospective of the Reverso design, taking visitors through a timeline of its evolution. From its early days on the polo fields of India in the 1930s to modern collectors still attracted by the Reverso’s innovative dual-sided case, it will also offer the opportunity to see heritage designs not normally available for public view.

Not to be missed is the Reverso Hybris Mechnica Calibre 185: the most complicated timepiece ever created within the Reverso line. Six years in development, it features an astonishing four functioning faces, as well as a cornucopia of astronomical complications capable of predicting events such as supermoons and eclipses.

This part of the exhibition will also act as a showcase for the traditional craftsmanship techniques honed by Jaeger-LeCoultre’s watchmakers over its nearly 200-year history. Focusing on the rare skills needed to create the Reverso’s Art Deco style, guests will discover the enamelling, engraving, gem-setting and guilloché work that goes into the house’s finest timepieces.

The third and final part of the exhibition is the 1931 Café – so named for the year the Reverso debuted. Featuring Art Deco interior design, the café will also be the venue for the unveiling of the 1931 Alphabet: a new typography style created for Jaeger-LeCoultre by Brooklyn-based lettering artist Alex Trochut. Collectors take note: it won’t be long before you spot it on the house’s most covetable new watches.

Reverso Stories is open 15-24 December 2022 at Covent Garden Piazza, jaeger-lecoultre.com