Press release
The radiance of gold, a noble material that has served our craftsmen well for three centuries. The strength of the flame, the secret to producing ultra-fine powders to make our unique dials of Grand Feu enamel. A wealth of meticulous skills and techniques perpetuated and reinvented by Jaquet Droz, model after model. The hand of the craftsman, the most precious tool available to the Manufacture, familiar with each gesture and the value of time. All of the master artisans who, in the seclusion of their workshops in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, created the horological masterpieces that Jaquet Droz is proudly presenting today.
THE ECLIPSE IVORY ENAMEL
Round and full, the watch face looks like a vision in a dream... Once again, Jaquet Droz invites the moon to cast its spell over the art of watchmaking.
Reflecting aesthetic choices in favor of purity, subtlety, classic motifs and powerful design codes, The Eclipse Ivory Enamel celebrates the best of luxury watchmaking and house craftsmanship, starting at the dial with its Grand Feu enameling. Specific to the brand, this ancient technique requires our artisans to carefully monitor and perfectly control the kiln temperature, the key to producing this disc with its unique color and grain. This "blank page," which has a subtle beauty of its own, features eight stars – eight being the favorite number of the house – and a moon engraved in red gold. Inspired by 18th-century designs, the dial recalls the origins of the brand and its penchant, from the Enlightenment onwards, for turning to the decorative arts. The nocturnal celestial body reveals its face from behind an index cut from white onyx. Crafted with great delicacy, it creates a tone-on-tone effect that fully captures the lyricism of the cycle of lunar phases.
Exuding a spirit of generosity, this scene sets the stage for a virtuoso performance by the complications.
While the day and month appear in two apertures at the top of the dial, an elegant serpentine hand surmounted by a crescent moon points to the date numerals, set at intervals at the edge of the red-gold case. This same path is taken by the Lancine hours and minutes hands, whose tapered profiles and classic lines underscore the remarkably harmonious design of this timepiece, mounted on a precious alligator strap.
GRANDE DATE IVORY ENAMEL
It sometimes happens that technical prowess is evidenced by the perfection of a craftsman's gesture. In such cases, supreme simplicity is the mark of true luxury. This is the rationale behind the Grande Date Ivory Enamel, a new classic that Jaquet Droz will be presenting exclusively at Baselworld 2012. It features a disc of ivory Grand Feu enamel, ensconced in a 43-mm red gold case. Its unique grain and incomparable hue are obtained by our master dialmakers using ancestral skills. Their familiarity with the all of the secrets of the enameling process – regarding powders, colors, firing and so forth – has been unanimously acclaimed since the days of the Enlightenment. More than a decade into the third millennium, Jaquet Droz has once again impressed the luxury watch community with a model of stunning visual purity. Positioned off-centered at twelve o'clock, the hours and minutes subdial is set elegantly into the enamel. The precious gleam of two Lancine hands, sweeping past Roman numerals as they circumnavigate the dial, echoes the warm radiance of the red gold case. At six o'clock, an aperture indicates the date in Arabic numerals whose size, carefully chosen, suggests the tremendous possibilities inherent to each new day. A distinctive watch that makes a new promise every twenty-four hours, the Grande Date Ivory Enamel will command the attention of connoisseurs of objets d'art.
GRANDE SECONDE OFF-CENTERED IVORY ENAMEL
With the Grande Seconde Off-Centered Ivory Enamel, Jaquet Droz combines classic watchmaking tradition with the imagination that has become a house trademark. A milestone in the history of the Manufacture, the Grande Seconde features two dials that, intertwined, form the number eight, a house leitmotif. One dial indicates the hours and minutes, the other tracks the passing of the sixty seconds in a minute. The size of the seconds hand and the incredible fineness of its profile evoke the myriad opportunities lying dormant in each passing minute. They are saluted by the elegance and graphic interest of this timepiece, whose dials and winding stem have been repositioned to give this watch a new look. The decorative motif, an artistic interpretation of mechanical gears, sets off the ivory hue of the Grand Feu enamel and the radiance of the red gold case. Finally, the winding stem at four o'clock has always intrigued aficionados.
For the proud owner, to touch or feel the Grande Seconde Off-Centered Ivory Enamel is to personally encounter the Jaquet Droz philosophy whereby the human experience of passing time should be marked by excellence, beauty and originality.
