Jaquet Droz

Jaquet Droz roots can be traced back to the birth of Pierre Jaquet-Droz in 1720, a maker of extraordinary and automaton, singing bird boxes clocks (the second largest collection of his works can be found in the Patek Philippe museum in Geneva.

The current day company, relaunched in 1989 is based in La Chaux-de-Fonds and has built an impressive reputation of producing highly complicated and distinctive timepieces. The current watch, produced in 2009 is a Tourbillon Quantieme, with power reserve and retrograde date is distinctive of the brand and its history. The 3 dimensional dial has two apertures cut into it to display the 88 hour power reserve to the left, and on the right, a novel yet ingenious retrograde sweeping date display. The tourbillon (traditional, not flying) is visible below the main silvered dial and held in place by distinctive blued steel screws. The movement is an in house Jaquet Droz Caliber Jd 3 manual wound containing 31 Jewels, and the imposing 47mm case is 18k white gold with snap on exhibition case back and co-axial crown for date setting.

With an original retail price of in excess of 190,000CHF and was made in a limited edition of 28 in white gold (this is 25/28), and 28 in pink gold. The current example, property of an important Middle Eastern collector is accompanied by its presentation box in addition to an Extract from the Jaques Droz Archives.