Jaquet Droz Grande Seconde Tourbillon Mother-of-Pearl

The display of time on the dial of wristwatch is a delicate balancing act, with the slightest misstep begging to be punished. Even in the most generous of cases, there just isn’t enough canvas to support anything less than artful deliberation. Nevertheless, watchmakers sometimes take their chances with off-kilter designs or by playing with proportions. When it pays off, it pays off big. Jaquet Droz knows this all too well and is justly renowned — and much envied — for its dial game, so to speak. In this pre-BaselWorld 2017 release, the brand once again advances to centre court, only to move the centre away from where your eyes tell you it should be.

The Grande Seconde Tourbillon Mother-of-Pearl brings a bunch of seasoned players to this game of time, including a silicon balance spring and pallet fork, a flying carrousel tourbillon to house these silicon escapement parts, a sapphire cage for the aforementioned tourbillon, a mother-of-pearl dial (in a couple of sections), gem-setting on the bezel and lugs, a long power reserve (7 days) and an automatic winding system (rotor with mother-of-pearl applique). To top it off, Jaquet Droz has chosen the Grande Seconde configuration, which it has famously skewed in its favour thanks to the figure-of-eight styling. This is a lot of talent to bring to one watch and indeed, this version of the Grande Seconde serves to introduce silicon components to the Jaquet Droz tourbillon.

The press release does not say so but the balance wheel appears to have been reconfigured as well while it also adds a little confusion by using the term “pallet horns” instead of pallet fork or anchor, as is the norm. We will certainly be looking into this at BaselWorld but, naming conventions and deliberate coyness aside, the brand deserves credit for piquing interest here. The watch is simply mesmerising, even if one doesn’t fully understand how all the technicalities work.

And there is the part where this is a ladies watch, albeit a rather large one at 39mm. There will certainly be plenty of male collectors wondering why Jaquet Droz has chosen this watch to make such a technically strong point but BaselWorld may yet hold more delights. We’ve never known any brand to reveal its best hand before the game has properly begun, after all.

Specifications
Movement Self-winding calibre 25JD with tourbillon

Power Reserve 7-days

Case 39mm red gold set with 260 diamonds

Water Resistance to 30m

Strap White hand-folded satin, clasp in red gold set with 32 diamonds

Price Unavailable

This story was first published in WOW.