Every year at Basel, the big watch show in Switzerland, companies trot out their latest R&D projects along with a plethora of new watches. The watches are what sell but the R&D products are what get the press. Take this lump of gears from Jaquet Droz, for example. At its core, this is a minute repeater redesigned to write numbers on a piece of paper instead of chime the current time. Read more…
While I understand the impulse to buy expensive watches, I’m rarely moved by to open my wallet when simple beauties like these come along. These two new limited editions form Jaquet Droz are sport watches for the caviar and horsie set. The Grande Seconde SW is a standard three hand watch with a few odd touches – “The numerals are printed on the inclined ring itself, a technical exploit to which only the Jaquet Droz craftsmen hold the secret” and presumably those selfsame craftsmen will take that secret to their graves – while the Reserve De Marche Ceramique is limited to 88 pieces and is made of ceramic. It has a 68-hour power reserve and reserve indicator on the dial.
Jaquet Droz is a brand based on drawings by one of the first robotics experts in the world, Jaquet Droz who designed many clockwork automatons and a number of watches. Their most famous piece is the big-seconds, the Grande Seconde. We got to see a few of their goodies at the show last week.
Above we see the new collection including a ladies model, the Fleur Du Temps, on the right. Read more…
