This is the Jaeger LeCoultre AMVOX2 DBS Transponder Watch:

But unlike your average $40,000.00 watch, this one is a little bit different, and here’s how…

For starters, in order to even be given the opportunity to buy one of these, you need to have one of THESE:

Yes that’s right, this is the Aston Martin DBS, the newest Aston Martin and the same Aston Martin model that so famously rolled over the hills of Montenegro in the most recent James Bond film Casino Royale.  It costs $265,000 and comes with a 2 year waiting list.  Suffice it to say, there is a connection.

Fancy watches and fancy cars seem to go together like ham and cheese, but besides the lame writing on the dial, this watch actually has the ability to unlock and lock the car of your brand-new Aston Martin if you should choose to buy it.  It is unique too, because it uses this magical thing that’s practically unheard of in the Swiss watch industry called electricity.  And that electricity is used to activate this device that can control the car’s locking mechanisms from up to 10 meters away.

It is also very cleaver too.  You see instead of pressing things as archaic as buttons, all you have to do is touch the crystal to operate the locking functions and to operate the chronograph.  It’s almost like a Tissot T-Touch in that regard.

Essentially it is a VERY expensive car remote, but there is one problem…

You see while the watch can lock and unlock your car, you still need the key to start it.  Now if you are familiar with the keys of expensive and even not so expensive cars, you know that the key is usually integrated with the remote, so if you need the key to operate your car, what do you need the watch for?!?

The reasoning behind the folks at Aston Martin and Jaeger LeCoultre was probably that if you can afford the car, than you can afford the watch, and given the price of the car, I believe they may be onto something.

Besides the limited production, ultra-expensive, unreachable Patek Philippe Sky-Moon Tourbillon, of whose price tag can reach well past the 7-figure mark, the Jaeger LeCoultre Reverso is the only other major luxury watch series that offers a double-sided wristwatch.  So if you ever get bored looking at the same dial with the same stuff on it, you can turn it over.

Unlike the Patek Philippe Sky-Moon Tourbillon, however, with the Jaeger LeCoultre Reverso series of watches you can simply flip the face over to the other side without having to take off the whole watch altogether.  Obviously the Patek Philippe is a lot more complicated:

But the Jaeger LeCoultre Reverso series of watches are a lot easier to use and cost more than one MILLION dollars less.  On top of that you can much more easily impress your friends:

To start, it looks like any other  dress watch:

Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Gran’Sport Duo Men’s Manual Two Time Zone Watch Stainless Steel on Black Rubber Strap 294.86.01 or Q2948601

Then with just a quick, flip-over motion…

Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Gran’Sport Duo Men’s Manual Two Time Zone Watch Stainless Steel on Black Rubber Strap 294.86.01 or Q2948601

You have an entirely different watch:

Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Gran’Sport Duo Men’s Manual Two Time Zone Watch Stainless Steel on Black Rubber Strap 294.86.01 or Q2948601

It becomes an ENTIRELY different watch.  Different dial color, different character, and different overall demeanor.  It’s like two watches in ONE!

Being as I am currently in Boston for work, I’m thinking about how this watch would be brilliant for business tavel, because if you think about it (and I have), a normal GMT  watch always has a  pronounced 4th hour hand to track a second time zone.  Why do you need that ALL the time?

What I appreciate about this particular Jaeger LeCoultre Reverso is that it goes great with business attire.  I think a watch like this would look stupid with anything other than a suit personally, but what a watch!  On top of that it reads the time precisely enough so that you get an accurate time reading on the primary face, but when you phone the wife, the reverse side gives you a general understanding of the time back home.  I mean it’s not like you need to pick up the kids or anything, so why do you need to know the precise seconds or anything like that?

Not all Reverso watches, however, are purely for tracking second timezones and offer a number of different options, I, however, don’t see much of a point.  This Reverso is the one I’d have, but I wouldn’t have one.

And here’s why…

As a man who does not like formal attire, I would not see much of an opportunity for me to wear one.  And similar to my problem with the Tissot T-Touch, the watch seems to focus primarily on its novelty.  It may have a rubber strap and a stainless steel case, but the mechanism that flips over the watch is delicate.  This is not a watch you can simply bash around.

The watch, furthermore, is a manual-wind watch, which means that you have to wind it every other day in order to keep it running.  I don’t personally care to do that as I think automatic watches are troublesome enough.  No… I’m afraid I will still continue to covet the good old Rolex Explorer II…