Two Cult Watches Square Off for Your Wrist
Repped by everyone from A$AP Rocky and Princess Diana to your local pilates princess, the Cartier Tank is indisputably the most stylish dress watch. You know the Tank. I know the Tank. Your favorite TikTok stylist knows the Tank.
Yet from the Tank’s square shadow, a quiet rival has risen. With its dual-face design, rich legacy, and poetic restraint, Jaeger-LeCoultre’s Reverso offers the same squared-off elegance with more mystery, more muscle, and more room to move differently. “It’s less about pure aesthetics and more about expressing personal style to show taste beyond hype,” says watch collector and advisor Georgia Benjamin. “The Reverso is a quiet flex.”
But the volume is slowly being turned up. Self-proclaimed style curator Sommyyah Awan recently posted a wrist-roll montage of Jaeger-LeCoultre’s flippable icon in January, and late last year, menswear guy Simon Gold took his followers inside a Jaeger-LeCoultre workshop centered around the watch. It has made red-carpet appearances on everyone from Kaytranada to Jeremy Allen White. It joined Walton Goggins in hosting SNL and Severance’s Tramell Tillman on vacation. Nicholas Hoult’s Lex Luthor is in on it (do with that what you will), rocking a Reverso in the new Superman flick, while Pedro Pascal upped his romantic swagger with the flipping watch in The Materialist. Even Derrick Rose’s current signature watch is a Reverso — if there ever was a guy who doesn’t miss.
To understand why, you first need to know the history of the Tank. Born in 1917 and inspired by World War I Renault tanks, Cartier’s square icon has marched through culture, boxy, austere, and seemingly impregnable. Andy Warhol wore one on gallery walks, and Yves Saint Laurent while designing couture. More recently, Frank Ocean sported a Tank while in the studio producing a song we’ll never hear, and Timothée Chalamet doubled down on the tiniest Tank imaginable.
“The Tank isn’t just dominant — it’s elemental,” says Maxime Courtier, creative director of punkish Swiss watch magazine heist-out. “It’s the white tee of horology: sleek and adaptable. It crosses borders, genres, and genders with the kind of grace most watches can only dream of.”
That square case, still a rarity in modern watchmaking, gives the Tank its offbeat elegance. Paired with a leather strap and a minimal dial, it’s chic and versatile without being flashy. It’s also the cool kids’ watch, culturally literate, low-key but still prestigious. And let’s be honest: getting in on the Cartier legacy for around $2,000? That’s dope.
Cartier didn’t invent the square watch, but the Tank’s ubiquity has had a ripple effect. You can credit it for helping the Noah x Timex collab sell out, for the Echo/Neutra Rivenera achieving minor cult status, and for reaffirming demand for vintage squares from Hamilton, Longines, and even Rolex.
But that kind of omnipresence has consequences. When the extraordinary becomes the uniform, the real heads start seeking an alternative. That’s where the Reverso comes in.
It isn’t necessarily a newcomer. The watch dates back to the polo fields of 1930s India, where its horizontally flipping case protected the dial during matches. Its utilitarian Art Deco origins gave the Reverso instant credibility with watchmakers and design purists. Most Reversos land between $5,000 and $10,000 but you can find vintage ones for around $2K if you don’t mind a little patina. Either way, it’s less hype, more heritage deep cut.
While Cartier is ubiquitous, JLC has real street cred — or better yet, horology cred. It’s the watchmaker’s watchmaker, the brand that built movements for Patek and Audemars. That’s something you won’t find in entry-level Tanks running on quartz.
Sure, you can wear your watch. But know thy watch? That feels more appropriate in a landscape full of TikTok know-it-alls. “The Reverso is about subtle connoisseurship — for people who want to show they know the craft, the story, and the watchmaking, not just what’s loud or trending,” says watch collector and advisor Georgia Benjamin. “It’s a statement, but a quieter, more horologically nuanced one.”
“The Reverso whispers instead of waves,” Courtier adds. “In a moment where Cartier is everywhere, and rightly so, wearing a Reverso is almost a quiet act of rebellion. It’s more private. More particular.” And that’s the point.
The Reverso rumblings are starting to spread outward. FashionTok’s “quiet luxury” crowd is discovering the depth of the Reverso’s vintage, enamelled, miniature, and iced-out options. While there, they might even discover Cartier’s Tank Basculante, its own flip-case wristwear clearly inspired by the Reverso. But it never moved like JLC’s square timepiece, culturally or mechanically. There may be only one Tank, but there’s also only one Reverso.
The Reverso won’t dethrone the Tank overnight. But as hype cools and taste sharpens, there’s room for something more subversive — a tangible reminder that square watches don’t start or end with Cartier.
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