To celebrate the 300th anniversary of Pierre Jaquet-Droz’s birth, the Maison has revealed a stunning timepiece for Only Watch 2021.
For the ninth consecutive time, Jaquet Droz will be donating a unique and exclusive piece for Only Watch 2021, a charity event that 54 other watch brands are participating in to raise funds for Muscular Dystrophy medical research.
For this biannual affair that is also huge in the watchmaking scene, Jaquet Droz has announced that they will be featuring a never-before-seen and exquisite timepiece – A Grande Seconde Skelet-One Tourbillon adorned with a plique-à-jour enamel dial.
Set out to provide the owner with the finest degree of watch artistry and most accurate reading, the Grande Seconde is updated to a larger size, and to feature an off-center dial at 6 o’clock. Most importantly, a tourbillon has also been added to the equation to ensure that the timepiece achieves its highest level of precision.
Jaquet Droz Grande Seconde Skelet-One Tourbillon “Only Watch”
Within the 41mm 18-karat red gold case, it houses the particular tourbillon that was born of Jaquet Droz’s in-house expertise, which is also entirely reworked by incorporating titanium and doing away with its sapphire bridges. Completely open for the owner to admire, the tourbillon seems to give the timepiece a beating heart of focus, as it is placed at the 12 o’clock position and exudes a powerful and distinct character of the watch.
Not just any simple sapphire dial, it is crafted on an 18-karat white gold base with Grand Feu plique-à-jour enamel.
Apart from the new escape movement, the underlying aesthetic language is also just as technical as it is unique. With a brand new skeleton structure, the Grande Seconde Skelet-One Tourbillon watch emphasises heavily on the beauty of straight lines, angles and perfect symmetry. Complicated yet so strikingly beautiful, the skeleton display flaunts the bridges that are painted in matte black while the tourbillon cage follows the geometry of the skeleton movement with a triple cross shape that aligns seamlessly with its bridges.
Even though the complexities of the skeleton display and tourbillon may seem very elaborate just on its own, it is further enhanced by a plique à jour dial which directly translates to “open to light” in French. In the decorative arts industry, it refers to a style of enameling where translucent enamels are fused into the spaces of a wire or metal strips to form an effect similar to which of a stained glass window. As seen on the dial of this exclusive timepiece, it is comprised of numerous straight and geometric sections separated by white gold, thus forming a dial which has been entirely polished flat.
In order to achieve such an exquisite piece of art, Jaquet Droz applied an extremely fine diamond powder polish to each area of the enamel, and had also elaborately selected each tone of enamel for the final result of red, orange and yellow. The bright tones all fittingly translate to expressions of positivity, happiness, and passion, which embodies and support the spirit of the Only Watch auction.
The 2021 Only Watch Auction will be held at Four Seasons Hôtel des Bergues, Geneva on 6 November 2021, 2pm Geneva time. To view the full range of watches available at the auction, visit https://www.onlywatch.com/collection.
