Jaeger-LeCoultre’s latest “Made of Makers” collab is a manga-styled webcomic take on the Reverso’s origin story

Time+Tide

Before One Piece, Superman or Tintin, there was a Swiss schoolteacher sketching stories in boxes. Rodolphe Töpfer, the acknowledged father of modern comic strips, invented speech balloons and sound effects in the mid-19th century—emblematic of how Swiss ingenuity extends beyond watchmaking. Now, nearly two centuries later, another Swiss icon is breathing new life into sequential art: Jaeger-LeCoultre has commissioned a webcomic retelling of the Reverso’s origin story, bringing one of the most enduring watch designs of the early 20th century into the vertical-scroll era.

This marks the latest entry in Jaeger-LeCoultre’s “Made of Makers” programme, a multidisciplinary series of collaborations that’s seen “the watchmaker’s watchmaker” team up with creatives as diverse as pastry chef Nina Métayer, mixologist Matthias Giroud and lettering artist Alex Trochut, just to name a few. This time, JLC has tapped Olivecoat—a rising Filipino webcomic artist known for tender character work, self-aware humour, and a distinctive pastel aesthetic—to dramatise the Reverso’s genesis. It’s an East-meets-West approach: a Western watchmaking legend filtered through manga-influenced visual storytelling, serialised for mobile screens.

The webcomic, simply titled “Reverso”, centres on two defining characters: César de Trey, the visionary entrepreneur who brought the challenge from India’s polo fields, and Jacques-David LeCoultre, the master watchmaker who engineered the solution in Le Sentier. Set against the backdrop of the Roaring Twenties and the pivotal 1930s, Olivecoat transforms archival facts into compelling fiction—making haute horlogerie accessible to digital-native audiences who’ve never held a mechanical watch.

Olivecoat’s journey mirrors the Reverso’s own versatility. The Cebu-based creator (real name Lily Catan) spent a decade running an interior design firm before returning to her teenage passion during the COVID-19 lockdowns. That architectural training shows in her careful panel composition and spatial awareness. After launching her first webtoon, Honbarian, on Canvas in 2021, she quickly built an international following. There’s a parallel to be made here between Olivecoat’s career pivot and the Reverso’s literal pivoting action, as well as how the Reverso’s sporting origins belie its modern dressy position.

It’s very cool to see a luxury brand like Jaeger-LeCoultre support other artisans through initiatives like Made of Makers, which has always drawn parallels between watchmaking and classical arts, challenging the notion that tradition means stagnation. This webcomic adds the “9th Art”—a term coined by French critic Claude Beylie in 1964 to elevate comics within fine arts, later validated by the Louvre’s 2009 exhibition of the same name.

But Jaeger-LeCoultre isn’t simply preserving heritage here. By commissioning a vertical-scrolling webcomic optimised for smartphones, the brand is also acknowledging how today’s audiences consume stories. Perhaps, somewhere, Rodolphe Töpfer would approve of his Swiss legacy finding fresh expression in the digital age…

“We are delighted to collaborate with the webcomic designer Olivecoat,” says Jérôme Lambert, CEO of Jaeger-LeCoultre. “She is a perfect fit for the Made of Makers programme, as she brings instinctive, self-taught mastery to her craft, reimagining classical techniques through a contemporary lens. Her commitment to timeless aesthetics and refined storytelling resonates deeply with our values at Jaeger-LeCoultre’s—making her a natural creative voice for the programme and its celebration of craftsmanship and innovation.”

The Reverso webcomic will launch publicly on November 1, 2025, with printed editions reserved as gifts for select collectors. You can preview the comic here.