Reverso Tribute Enamel 'Shahnameh' - Saam Comes to Mount Alburz

Jaeger-LeCoultre unveils a series of four Reverso Tribute Enamel watches, inspired by Persian miniature painting. On the back of each piece is a tiny reproduction of an illustration from Shânâmeh or the Book of Kings, an epic text that chronicles the history of Persia and its rulers, taken from a magnificent illuminated manuscript that was created in the sixteenth century and dedicated to Shah Tahmasp. These four models, which indirectly celebrate the Persian origins of polo, the sport that inspired the Reverso, call on four traditional crafts. One of the many challenges was to miniaturise the original 48 x 32cm illustrations – executed with the finest of lines and teeming with detail – and recreate them on a surface of just two square centimetres. Each reproduction, in enamel miniature painting, is elevated with paillonnage: a nod to the Persian tradition of embellishing miniatures with gold leaf. For each watch, these two techniques alone, miniature painting and paillonnage, require a hundred hours of careful concentration. On the front side, Grand Feu enamel is applied on the hand-guilloché dial base. Each of the four models is produced as a limited edition of ten pieces and fitted with Calibre 822. This manual-winding movement displays hours and minutes, and supplies 42 hours of power reserve.