Jaquet Droz

The Swiss luxury watch brand Jaquet-Droz derives its name from its founder Pierre Jaquet-Droz, who in the 18th centurty built animated dolls (automata), to help his firm sell watches and mechanical birds. In the late 18th century Jaquet-Droz specialized in exporting luxury watches featuring automata, musical mechanisms or other complications.

The company also started developing singing birds. In 2000 Jaquet-Droz was acquired by the Swatch Group (Omega, Blancpain, Longines, Swatch). Notable Jaquet Droz watches include the Jaquet Droz Grande Seconde, Jaquet Droz Grande Seconde SW, Jaquet Droz Astrale, Jaquet Droz Petite Heure Minute, Jaquet Droz Lady 8, Jaquet Droz Les Ateliers d’Art. The Jaquet Droz Bird Repeater also is very popular.

WATCH REVIEW

Borrowed Time: Jaquet Droz Grande Seconde Skelet-One

You can do a lot with a figure eight. Over the years, Jaquet Droz has used its iconic Grande Seconde dial configuration — a figure-eight design with a small subdial for the hours and minutes atop a larger subdial for the seconds — as the template for numerous variations. With the new and somewhat oddly named Grande Seconde Skelet-One, introduced this year at Baselworld, the brand has introduced its boldest and most unusual take on the Grande Seconde to date.

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Nov 13, 2018 by Mark Bernardo