The Plainest Reverso

The Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Tribute Small Seconds Ref. Q713842J is the quietest thing in the Reverso line: a stainless steel case of 45.6 x 27.4 mm, a silvered white dial, applied dark baton markers and small seconds at six o’clock. Polished flutes run along the edges of the frame, the hands are dark and thin, the strap black smooth leather. One dial only: this reference is not a Duoface, so the far side is a plain steel plate.

Why Plain Is Harder to Copy

A silvered white dial offers no numerals or printing to hide behind. Every applied baton sits on an empty ground, so a baton turned a degree off its radius, or set out of line with its neighbour, reads as a fault at arm’s length. Hands are judged the same way: across 27.4 mm of dial, a minute hand that falls short of the printed track or overshoots it shows at once, and the track has to hold an even gap the whole way round.

Weak work on a light dial shows in three places. The dial becomes flat paint instead of a multi-layer sunray surface, the silver tone drifting warm or grey. The crystal is mineral rather than sapphire with anti-reflective coating, milky glare on a pale ground in daylight. And the case swells to 11-13 mm, visible without a caliper. A Tier-1 JLC Reverso super clone holds within half a millimetre of the genuine 8.5 mm.

The Movement Behind It

The Reverso caliber is shaped, rectangular rather than round, and the case allows nothing else: 27.4 mm of width, the seconds subdial fixed above six o’clock. A round movement in that space pushes its small seconds off the mark, the usual tell of Chinese quartz and DG2813 builds. This JLC Reverso replica therefore uses a clone of the original caliber: clone Cal. 822/2, manual-wind, 21,600 vph, with no rotor adding height to a flat case. The genuine Ref. Q713842J runs Cal. 822/2 at 21,600 vph with 19 jewels and 42 hours of reserve; the clone holds 40 hours.

Nothing is printed on this dial, so nothing about the build stays hidden, which makes the reference an honest benchmark against the coloured and gold cases on the full flip-case list. Finishing judged at exactly that level is what a breakdown of JLC super clone grades is built around.

Specifications

• Model: Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Tribute Small Seconds
• Reference: Q713842J
• Case: stainless steel, polished flutes on frame edges
• Case size: 45.6 x 27.4 mm
• Thickness: within 0.5 mm of the genuine 8.5 mm
• Dial: silvered white, applied dark baton markers, thin outer track
• Small seconds: at 6 o’clock
• Movement: clone Cal. 822/2, manual-wind, 21,600 vph
• Power reserve: 40 hours (genuine Cal. 822/2: 42 hours)
• Crystal: sapphire with anti-reflective coating
• Water resistance: 30 m (same as genuine)
• Strap: black smooth leather
• Configuration: single dial, not Duoface

Silver, Blue or Black

Three Tribute Small Seconds sit in this catalogue, differing in dial and metal, not size. Q713842J is the silvered white dial on steel, the plainest and least forgiving of a careless build. The blue-dial steel version keeps the same 45.6 x 27.4 mm case and puts a coloured, textured surface where this one is empty. The black-dial version moves to rose gold. The silver dial hides nothing, so it shows most about how a JLC Reverso replica was finished.