Polo is not a sport for the faint of heart. Players race from one end of the field to another atop galloping horses, all while chasing a small white ball whose speed might reach 110 mph and attempting to hit it with a long mallet into a goal. Under these rigorous circumstances, a polo player’s watch could risk damage from contact with a horse or a swinging mallet.

That was the case until 1931 when Jacques-David LeCoultre’s watchmakers created the first Reverso watch whose dial and case were designed so they could be flipped over to expose a solid block of metal that would protect the delicate movement and crystal.

Workshops overseen by Jacques-David LeCoultre created the first version of the Reverso watch in an attempt to solve this thorny problem for polo-loving members of the British Army stationed in India. The first Reverso bore a distinct Art Deco sensibility and throughout the collection’s 85-year history the timepieces have reflected the same aesthetic.

The Reverso Cordonnet launched in 1936 as the first such watch for women. Over the decades the company that came to be known as Jaeger-LeCoultre has offered complications and models of various sizes and materials.

Late last year Jaeger-LeCoultre hosted a weekend of festivities in Buenos Aires celebrating Reverso’s 85th anniversary and its polo inspiration. Its culmination was the final match of the 122nd annual Argentine Polo Open Championship, held in the fabled stadium in the Palermo neighborhood. The luxury watchmaker is a sponsor of these matches said to be the fifth-oldest annual polo competition in the world.

At the final match of the Jaeger-LeCoultre-sponsored Polo Open in December, the players (or polistas as they’re called in Argentina) of La Dolfina won 13 to 12 against their Ellerstina rivals. It was La Dolfina’s third consecutive triple crown title.

To kick off the weekend’s festivities, Jaeger-LeCoultre CEO Daniel Riedo hosted an invitation-only dinner party at the historic Palacio Sans Souci in
San Fernando, just outside of the Argentine capital.

Before dinner Reido presented some of the latest new Reverso models. The 85th-anniversary collection includes the Reverso Tribute Gyrotourbillon, Reverso Tribute Duo, Reverso Tribute Calendar, Reverso One Réédition, Reverso One Cordonnet and Reverso One Duetto Moon, as well as the Reverso Classic in three sizes.

Among the evening’s guests were polo champions and Jaeger-LeCoultre brand ambassadors Eduardo Novillo Astrada, Clare Mountbatten and Luke Tomlinson, a former captain of Britain’s polo team.

KEEPING PACE

In an interview with Watch Journal, Clare Mountbatten freely shares her experiences as a woman polo player, brand ambassador and fan of the traditional sport. “There is a perception that women are treated differently on the playing field,” says Mountbatten, who as the Marchioness of Milford Haven in England also goes by Clare Milford Haven. “But actually what I love about polo is it’s a very even playing field because you’re all handicapped in the same way. So it’s a bit like golf.”

For example “my handicap, which is 0 and an amateur handicap” means “I am playing against a man with the same handicap,” she says. “There’s no reason why I can’t be better than him.” And because of this, “men think women play in exactly the same way as a man. I like that. I wouldn’t want it to be any different actually.”

Nonetheless, she observes that in Argentina the women polo players “decided to very much have their own leagues and they created their own handicaps.” And this is now being introduced elsewhere. “We’ve started doing it in England,” she says. “You have just a slightly different rating for all female tournaments. I’m much happier playing with the guys,” Mountbatten says, however. “They are much kinder to me.”

At “the club that I belong to at home, Cowdray Park, we probably have 150 members and there would probably be of that number maybe 20 women,” she says. “It’s generally a man’s game but there’s no reason that women can’t compete.”

“It was about 20 years ago when I first sat on a polo pony,” Mountbatten recalls. “I didn’t play in my first tournament until about ’99,” she says. “The rules are actually quite complicated as well. It took me a while to understand.” Plus, “I hadn’t been riding regularly and the riding is very, very important,” she adds. “I just played and played and played until I got to the stage where I felt I could start competing.”

For Mountbatten, playing polo has been transformative. “It’s changed my life honestly because I’ve broadened my horizons,” she says. “I’ve been to different countries. I have now a group of friends I never would have had if I hadn’t played polo. I think my outlook is very different. I find it really life changing.”

Now after representing Jaeger-LeCoultre for 11 years, “I very, very much stake my claim as the original brand ambassador,” Mountbatten says, adding, “I probably am the oldest.” She recalls approaching Jaeger-LeCoultre officials “to make the suggestion that they get back in touchwith their polo groups as it were, having made the Reverso … back in the 1930s.”

When asked if she wears a Reverso on the field, Mountbatten says, “not always.” As a polo player “you don’t want too many things on your wrist but I feel very happy wearing it.”

It’s crucial in polo just like in golf or tennis to hit the ball cleanly and well and accurately, she says. “To be effective, you need to be precise.” When players “hit the ball they know where the other guy is; they know he’s going to receive it.” Thus, “there’s no room for error.” And “the precision element of it is also the timing of the swing.”“Polo is … very time sensitive,” Mountbatten says. “You have seven minutes each chukker. So you are always quite mindful of the time … because it’s extraordinary how the game can change very, very quickly.”

Mountbatten has adopted time consciousness as a matter of course. “It’s a
good discipline that you have to turn up on time” to play, she says. “If you turn up late, you’re not in the right frame of mind; you’re flustered.”

Today timeliness is an integral part of her lifestyle. “What’s quite good for me actually is the discipline of keeping accurate time in my daily life,” she says. “In the past I always tried to do far too many things in one day and was always running out of time.

Now I find myself much more disciplined,” she says. “You can’t do so many
things in a day.” And so “the discipline of polo and the discipline of actually working with a Swiss watch company has taught me quite a lot about how
I should conduct my life.

“Jaeger-LeCoultre is a very traditional brand and polo is a very traditional sport” from centuries ago, she muses, noting, however, that the sport has been adapted for the 21st century. “So it’s become much more professional and less about gentlemen getting together for a fun game. … It’s become very, very serious.”

In 2011 Mountbatten edited a centenary book on the Cowdray Park Polo Club. “It was wonderful looking back in the archives and seeing the sort oftradition in the 1930s, how they used to play, how the horses used to come down from London on the train,” she says. Reflecting on “the lengths that people would go to” back then to enjoy a game of polo, Mountbatten is proud to play a sport with a venerable “tradition and history.”