On rare occasions in horology, you can have your cake and eat it too. Jaquet Droz’s Grande Seconde Tourbillon Aventurine is proof of that – it has been spiced up on the technical end with a tourbillon and dressed up on the aesthetics end with various precious materials – making it a complicated watch that doubles as jewellery.

Looks wise, the Grande Seconde Tourbillon Aventurine is a variation on a familiar theme, this time executed in blue and white. The timepiece’s Grande Seconde pedigree is apparent at first sight, given its figure eight motif on the dial. Like its siblings from the collection, the watch’s small seconds and tourbillon have been swapped to the upper half of the dial, likely to provide visual balance given the tourbillon’s smaller dimensions. Set in a sapphire crystal frame, the tourbillon’s movements can be studied in detail both from the front, and the see-through caseback. In its place, the namesake Grande Seconde subdial (done here in mother-of-pearl) is occupied by the hour and minute hands. Blued steel hands round out the timekeeping portion of the timepiece, with the setup ringed by diamonds and set on an aventurine dial evoking a star-strewn night sky. Diamonds have also been set on the 39mm white gold case, its lugs, and the bracelet’s clasp, and total 382 stones weighing 1.88 carats. Despite the sheer number of stones, at no point does the watch appear garish, thanks to their confinement to the fringes of the timepiece.

Flip the Grande Seconde Tourbillon Aventurine over and you’ll be in for another surprise. In addition to the usual Côtes de Genève and circular graining on the bridge and main plate, you’ll find that the rotor has been set with a piece of aventurine to mirror the dial on the front, with two gold stars fixed on it to form the signature of Jaquet Droz. The Calibre 25JD movement displayed here also hides a generous 7 day power reserve, further confirming that this is no mere jewellery watch that focuses only on looks.

The Grande Seconde Tourbillon Aventurine is only limited to 28 pieces worldwide.