Jaeger-LeCoultre

Inside the trade Jaeger-LeCoultre is called the Grande Maison, and the nickname is arithmetic rather than flattery. The manufacture has produced well over a thousand calibres in its own workshops, and for decades it supplied movements to houses that are household names in their own right.

That matters on Old Bond Street, where several neighbours buy in the engine and finish the case. Jaeger-LeCoultre makes both. The London flagship is where the house shows its complications first, and where references still under embargo appear the day the embargo lifts.

The watch boutique Old Bond Street collectors call first

The Reverso is what most visitors ask for, a rectangular case that flips on its carriage to put solid steel where the crystal was, designed in 1931 so that polo players could survive a chukka. It remains the piece the house is known for and the easiest way to understand its habit of solving a problem mechanically.

Coming to see a complication

Current collections sit on the floor. Perpetual calendars, minute repeaters and the higher complications generally do not, because they are held centrally and moved for a named client. Ring first and the piece is in the building when you arrive, which is the difference between seeing one and hearing about one.