News · Jaeger-LeCoultre

Jaeger-LeCoultre puts four Turners on the Reverso

Each ten-piece white-gold edition combines a 14-layer enamel miniature with a hand-guilloché Grand Feu dial.

Hen & Mills Editorial · 4 min read · 29 August 2026

• Four white-gold Reversos reproduce separate J.M.W. Turner views of Venice in hand-painted enamel, with ten pieces across each of the four references.
• Each caseback miniature uses 14 enamel layers and about 80 hours of work, while every coloured dial has its own hand-guilloché pattern.
• Each reference is limited to ten pieces, available through Jaeger-LeCoultre boutiques at price on request, with no public Australian list price.

Four reversible cases, four views of Venice and forty watches in total connect Jaeger-LeCoultre's decorative workshops with J.M.W. Turner. Each 18-carat white-gold reference pairs a hand-guilloché Grand Feu enamel dial with a miniature reproduction of one painting on the reverse. Every version is limited to ten pieces. The launch coincides with the brand's participation in September's Homo Faber Biennale in Venice, introducing the newly announced Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Tribute Enamel Turner Series.

Turner visited Venice in 1819, 1833 and 1840, returning to its humid light and reflections. Jaeger-LeCoultre chose works spanning that period: views of the Dogana, Madonna della Salute and two treatments of the Bridge of Sighs. The reverse offers about two square centimetres for each miniature. The first two paintings measure about 91.5 by 122 centimetres and 91.4 by 122.2 centimetres respectively, requiring the enamellers to crop the compositions while retaining their architecture, water and depth.

Fourteen layers for Venetian light

Each miniature uses 14 layers of enamel: three base layers, four painted layers and seven translucent fondant layers, each fired separately at 800 degrees Celsius. Jaeger-LeCoultre says the miniature painting takes about 80 hours for each watch. A small gold-leaf paillon acts as the enameller's signature, while silver leaf beneath translucent enamel brightens areas of water. The lagoon therefore reflects differently from the architecture and sky, even though every element shares the same small enamelled surface.

Clouds are painted, covered with two translucent layers, painted again and then sealed beneath further translucent enamel. The dials answer those paintings through colour and guilloché. A manually operated rose-engine lathe cuts each pattern before translucent enamel is applied. Depending on the reference, a dial receives as many as five enamel layers and six or seven firings. Drilling the finished enamel for the applied markers is the last risky operation, since a crack would undo the work below.

A pattern for each painting

Reference Q39334W1 carries Turner's Venice, the Dogana and San Giorgio Maggiore. Its green dial uses a new soleil croisé pattern made from 180 lines, six passes for each line and 1,080 passages in total. Q39334W2 reproduces Venice, from the Porch of Madonna della Salute. Its green dial uses vertical barleycorn, also described as a rice-grain pattern, formed by 70 lines and six passes per line. Those 420 operations produce a tighter texture for the painting's hazier view.

Q39334W3 shows Bridge of Sighs, Ducal Palace and Custom House, Venice. The launch narrative calls its blue guilloché basket weave and gives 46 lines, each cut in six successive passes. The technical table and current product page instead label the pattern barleycorn, an inconsistency in Jaeger-LeCoultre's own material. Q39334W4 takes Venice, the Bridge of Sighs and pairs it with a lavender-blue wavy guilloché pattern requiring 41 lines and nine passes per line.

All four retain the Reverso Tribute layout: faceted applied hour markers, Dauphine hands and a chemin de fer minute track, with no seconds hand or calendar interrupting the enamel. The white-gold case measures 45.6mm by 27.4mm and has 30 metres of water resistance. The launch release gives a thickness of 9.73mm, while the current Australian product pages list 8.51mm. That discrepancy remains unresolved, so both figures are reported instead of selecting one.

Green soleil croisé answers the bright lagoon of the first work, green barleycorn follows the hazier porch view, blue sits opposite the broad sky of the third, and wavy lavender-blue responds to the final Bridge of Sighs composition. Jaeger-LeCoultre uses its 2.94mm-thick hand-wound calibre 822 for hours and minutes. The rectangular, 108-component movement runs at 21,600 vibrations an hour and provides 42 hours of reserve. A black alligator strap and 18-carat white-gold double-folding buckle complete each reference.

Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Tribute Enamel Turner Series pricing and availability

All four references are available through Jaeger-LeCoultre boutiques, with the official product pages offering registration of interest, boutique-availability checks and appointments. Prices are available only on request. Jaeger-LeCoultre has not published an Australian list price or a public figure in another currency, so none is estimated here. The limit is ten watches of each reference, for forty across the series, and the brand has not listed a general delivery date.

The series connects two surfaces that respond to changing light. Paillons and translucent layers alter the miniature on the reverse, while hand-cut guilloché moves beneath the Grand Feu enamel dial. The rectangular calibre allows that pairing to remain inside the Reverso's established proportions, even with the competing published thickness figures. Closing the case hides one view and reveals the other, giving the decorative work a mechanical role alongside its reproduction of Turner's Venice. That relationship is the series' most coherent use of the reversible case.