this post was submitted on 24 Oct 2023
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The watch I have most obsessed over, and was recently fortunate enough to be able to purchase, is the Reverso Duoface (classic medium small seconds).
I remember seeing ads for early versions of the Duoface in glossy magazines when I was in my teens, but what piqued my interest in owning a Reverso was, ironically, Watchfinder's video about the Baume et Mercier Hampton 10528—which totally sold me on rectangular dress watches, and which attracted a few comments mentioning the Reverso as an obvious inspiration for B&M's design.
For nearly three years I considered all the many different options: vintage or modern? Monoface, duoface, memory, or display caseback? Of course the Hybris Mechanica Quadriptyque and Hybris Artistica Gyrotourbillon are probably my true grails, but even eliminating all the completely impossible choices still leaves so many amazing models to choose from.
Eventually I narrowed it down to a set of four models all of which were reasonably available (but only one currently in production) and made a spreadsheet to compare them. Obsessive checking of review videos followed, mainly to try to get a sense of whether the two "large" models would fit on my rather slim wrist; eventually after trying a few different models on I decided that the medium would be a better fit. That narrowed it to two, and although I love the front dial of the Q3838420 I much preferred the back dial of the current Q2458420.
Unfortunately the medium size is relatively rare on the pre-owned market (especially in the UK) and this past May when, after many months of scouring eBay and Chrono24, I saw a post here that JLC was going to be putting their prices up again I bit the bullet and enjoyed a very delightful but mildly impoverishing afternoon at the JLC boutique.
Of course no grail is ever an end, so what next?
Curiously enough it's probably the Mondaine Stop2Go. There's a new 41mm version available now available for preorder—and I might—but what I really want is one of the early, ~36mm versions, now long out of production and rare enough I've seen only one come up for sale in the last several years.
Even more humbly, I also want a SARB033—but as a matter of principle am unwilling to pay more than its original MSRP, so this quest is one I expect to continue for some time, despite prices at last moving in the right direction.