Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Tribute Enamel Hokusai Waterfalls: The Eight-Year Masterpiece Series Finally Completed — W&W 2026

Description

Eight years ago Jaeger-LeCoultre quietly began one of the most ambitious miniature-painting projects in contemporary watchmaking: to transfer every image from Katsushika Hokusai's woodblock print series A Tour of the Waterfalls of the Provinces onto the reverse dial of a Reverso using Grand Feu enamel. Four were produced between 2018 and 2023. At Watches & Wonders 2026, the series is finally completed with the last four paintings — a closing chapter that will never be reopened.

The new references depict Rōben Waterfall at Ōyama in Sagami Province, Kiyotaki Kannon Waterfall at Sakanoshita on the Tōkaidō, Yōrō Waterfall in Mino Province, and The Falls at Aoigaoka in the Eastern Capital. Each reference is limited to just 10 pieces, cased in 18k white gold, and hand-painted by the Maison's Métiers Rares atelier. Together the four new pieces total 40 watches worldwide — the full "Hokusai Waterfalls" Reverso set now closed at 80 pieces (eight paintings × 10 pieces each).

For collectors who have been chasing the series since 2018, this is a rare opportunity to complete the set. For everyone else, it is a short window onto one of the finest miniature-enamel programmes being produced in Switzerland today — and onto an art form whose purpose is perfectly served by the Reverso case itself: to protect the painted dial by flipping it inward, against the wrist.

Design

Front-facing, the Reverso Tribute silhouette remains unmistakable — the 1931 art-deco case geometry, with three gadroons top and bottom, a satin-brushed silver dial, applied baton indices, and a pair of Dauphine hands. It is intentionally restrained so that the reverse — the painted face — becomes the true subject of the watch.

Flip the case on its carriage and the Hokusai waterfall is revealed in full-colour Grand Feu miniature enamel, painted by hand by a single artist using Geneva's historic technique. Each painting requires a minimum of fourteen successive layers of enamel, each fired in a kiln at approximately 800°C before the next is applied. A single dial takes around 80 hours of work — not including the near-inevitable losses to kiln failure, which can force the painter to start over from the first layer. The 18k white gold case is satin-brushed with polished gadroons, paired with a black alligator strap and white gold folding clasp, or optionally with an 18k white gold Milanese-mesh bracelet.

Specifications

References: 4 new paintings — Rōben Waterfall (Sagami), Kiyotaki Kannon (Tōkaidō), Yōrō (Mino), Falls at Aoigaoka (Eastern Capital)
Case: 45.6mm × 27.4mm × 9.73mm, 18k white gold, satin-brushed with polished gadroons
Front dial: Solid silver, sunray-brushed, applied baton indices, Dauphine hands
Reverse dial: Grand Feu miniature enamel painting, 14+ layers, Geneva technique
Crystal: Sapphire front and caseback
Water resistance: 30 metres
Strap options: Black alligator with 18k white gold folding clasp, or 18k white gold Milanese-mesh bracelet
Movement: Calibre 822 (in-house, manual wind)
Frequency: 21,600 vph (3 Hz)
Power reserve: 42 hours
Functions: Hours and minutes only (to keep the reverse's enamel painting as the focal point)
Limited edition: 10 pieces per reference (40 pieces total)
Price: On request (Reverso Tribute Enamel pieces typically sit in the CHF 170,000+ range)

What's Exciting

This is not a new watch so much as the closing of a sealed-set project — and that matters. The Reverso was invented in 1931 specifically to protect a painted or engraved dial on its hidden face; eight years of Hokusai waterfalls is one of the most compelling modern uses of that original idea. The Métiers Rares atelier's Grand Feu enamel work is, by consensus of the watch press, among the very best produced in Geneva today, and a 10-piece-per-reference limit means these will disappear into private collections almost instantly.

For Freddy's Watches readers who follow value carefully: this is not a value-for-money release and it never was. It is a collectability-and-craft release. The appeal is the scarcity of the closed set — eight paintings × 10 pieces each — combined with the legitimate art-historical weight of Hokusai and the demonstrable skill of the enamel painter. That is what Métiers Rares actually means.

History

Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849) is the most internationally recognised Japanese printmaker of the Edo period, most famously the artist of The Great Wave off Kanagawa. His series A Tour of the Waterfalls of the Provinces (circa 1832–1833) comprises eight colour woodblock prints depicting named waterfalls across Japan — an early and highly influential example of landscape ukiyo-e. Jaeger-LeCoultre's decision in 2018 to systematically miniaturise all eight prints over an eight-year cycle was an unusually disciplined commitment for a luxury house; the Maison's Métiers Rares atelier has been responsible for some of Swiss watchmaking's most admired enamel, engraving, and guilloché work for decades.

The Reverso itself debuted in 1931, designed for British army polo players in India who wanted a case that could be flipped to protect the crystal during play. Its pivoting architecture quickly became the ideal canvas for dial art — engraved motifs, enamel miniatures, and personalisations — and remains, nearly a century later, the most recognisable artistic watch case ever made.