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Brand
History
 We have entered the age
of virtuality, megabytes and monitors flashing with images of
the world. The third millennium has narrowed time, which zips
between world capitals at high speed and surfs time zones like
a digital energy, oblivious of its inherent power. In this race
towards the Abstract run with pixels and plasma, time is the
ultimate luxury, its measurement a privilege reserved for the
happy few. This endeavor has been shaped by history, man's awareness
of the passage of time and his compulsion to come closer to solving
a mystery by clothing it in gold, silver and gems, Indeed, each
human being must contemplate the problem at hand: How does one
measure what has been and what is to be? Men throughout the ages,
created instruments of measurement, some simple and others sophisticated,
to tackle this elusive challenge, where the timeless joins the
quotidian, and the duration of a heartbeat can seem longer than
an hour on a sundial. Like their dreams, their legacy to history
is bold and fascinating.
Craftsmen and workshops have disappeared,
their brilliant mechanical creations stopped forever. Yet some
manufactures of Haute Horlogerie have traversed the centuries,
seeking to elucidate a mystery reiterated with each passing second.
Jaquet Droz is one of them. Founded in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland
in 1738, this manufacture has preserved its expertise beyond
compare. On the strength of its unprecedented technical superiority
and its attention to creativity, it has become one of the most
outstanding names in contemporary watchmaking.
Yet longevity requires more than
a prestigious history and legendary name, although Jaquet Droz
has both. Its founder Pierre Jaquet Droz (1721-1790), watchmaker,
jeweller, inventor and merchant extraordinaire, was a genius
who impressed engineers, courtiers and royalty, including Marie-Antoinette
at age twenty, from Europe to the Imperial City in China. Magnificent
pieces have been preserved. Some of these spectacular mechanical
figures (automata) still work, such as "The Writer",
which actually sets pen to paper and writes. There are musical
watches encrusted with pearls and rubies, with carillons, mechanical
singing birds and stunningly precise enamelling. It's as if memories
of fabulous royal celebrations, or the soft whisper of fine fabrics
as garments fall during amorous trysts, were captured in the
gleam of gold and the glow of gems, colors as bright as ever.
It's like a scene from Amadeus by Milos Forman, Barry Lyndon
by Stanley Kubrick, or Liaisons Dangereuses by Choderlos de Laclos.
More, Jaquet Droz transcended the
confines of formal court life, so lavish and intoxicated with
excess. The Grande Seconde pocket watch, an icon of 18th-century
watchmaking, proves it. Against the same ivory background one
finds two dials, one for the hours-minutes and one for the seconds,
with their off-centered hands and their combination of Roman
and Arabic numerals. This early landmark design would eventually
form the cornerstone of the Jaquet Droz philosophy, based on
impeccable technique and subtly daring design. Today, it continues
to inspire the look of the brand. These watches, with their self-winding
double barrel mechanical movements, are outstanding works of
precision engineering crafted in precious materials. Formal and
contemporary, they grace the wrists of women and men with sensuous
elegance.
 One look at a Jaquet
Droz watch tells the story: it may be compared to a work of art.
Behind the deliberately simple curves of these rare timepieces
lie treasures of ingenious design, the expertise of centuries,
one-of-a-kind watchmaking techniques and a never-ending quest
to increase purity of line. Today, true luxury is unostentatious
and comes in limited numbers.
That's why Jaquet Droz is bringing
out numbered series of Numerus Clausus models. Their powerful
symbolism is based on the numerology of the number eight, which
signifies fulfillment and infinity and refers to the close proximity
of the two dials on the Grande Seconde. ﾒGrand feuﾓ enamelling,
a dial gleaming with onyx, obsidian or quartz, blued steel hands,
a tourbillon carriage in hypnotic motion, the power of a chronograph
or perpetual calendarﾉ Welcome to the world of Jaquet Droz, where
time is marked and mastered, where fine craftsmanship goes hand
in hand with beauty and purity of line.
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