Ornatus-Mundi
[Zenith]
7136
Baselworld 2012 - the official PuristSPro report: Jaquet*Droz
Jaquet*Droz has a changeful – but long - history in fine watchmaking: Founded by Pierre Jaquet-Droz (1721–1790), a Swiss-born watchmaker, the company was famous for clocks, musical birds - and animated dolls.
Pierre Jaquet-Droz, his son Henri-Louis as well as their partner Jean-Frédéric Leschot were also marketing geniuses in the sense that they developed their automata to help selling their watches and clocks. Much like Red Bull for example organises Red Bull stunt events to help selling their energy drink.
The brand was successful amongst the nobility of Europe, but had a particularly strong customer base in China.
In reviving the company an ancient technology of Grand Feu enamelling was also put at display, bringing the collectors a fascinating variety of difficult to make dials, expanded by a range of rare stones, fossils or other materials such as exotic wood plates.
Mr Emch was for a long time the face of new-born J*D, but all this changed in early October 2009 when he quit his job (and later accepted to lead the Romain Jerome brand; report to follow!). Subsequently, the brand is now in the hands of Breguet, Blancpain and German dial manufacturer’s CEO Marc A. Hayek.
So, the question is – what (if anything at all!?) changed, and can we learn something from the changes? Our visit to the brand should answer this!
Since the collections are a but confusing we will present the novelties arranged in a few major thematic groups!
This message has been edited by Ornatus-Mundi on 2012-07-09 08:09:23 This message has been edited by AnthonyTsai on 2012-07-09 09:48:21 This message has been edited by MTF on 2012-07-13 13:39:49
Baselworld 2012 - the official PuristSPro report: Jaquet*Droz
Jaquet*Droz has a changeful – but long - history in fine watchmaking: Founded by Pierre Jaquet-Droz (1721–1790), a Swiss-born watchmaker, the company was famous for clocks, musical birds - and animated dolls. Pierre Jaquet-Droz, his son Henri-Louis as wel...
The Grande Heure Minute Onyx
A stand out piece from the J*D collection back in 2010 and still a beautiful watch, with the simple style and the black onyx dial. Size is 43mm, the case is steel and it has an automatic movement from J*D (developed by Frédéric Piguet). The dark onyx dial...
The Eclipse
The Eclipse Onyx “The magical colour of the stone provides a marvellous foil for the bright rhodium-plated metal of the eight stars and the moon.” [Press-Kit] The watch was already introduced some years ago, but not in this version. Black onyx for the dia...
I rather like this one.
It's very sober. The time is a little hard to read, but it has a lot of charm nonetheless. Thanks for all the great photos and coverage of J*D! :-) Daos
I love the inventive "eclipse" solution...
..for doing the moon phases. The rest of the watch design is pretty basic, but kudos to this. Works best in black, but the white showcases the action most clearly.
The Grande Seconde
Grande Seconde Power Reserve Ceramic This is not a new watch, but the first time to handle it in ‘the metal’ – well, ceramic that is! The watch is a derivative of the Grande Seconde Power Reserve with a matte black dial wrapped into a ceramic case of 44mm...
The Sports Watch
Sports Watch Grande Seconde Bracelet J*D’s attempt to a sports watch, joining the innards of a Grande Seconde with a (elaborate) rugged case. Does this work? It does because of the well-choosen blend of elements of the traditional and an accentuation of t...
The Petit Heure Minute
Petit Heure Minute Relief Dragon With the beginning of the Chinese Year of the Dragon of course and particularly J*D could not miss this opportunity, with the Chinese market historically being of considerable importance. The company did so with an impress...
The Android ‘The Magician’
no, not a mobile OS... Automata are a true historic specialty of J*D. Still today the company acts as custodian for these amazing artefacts and proudly displays them to a selected public. We were shown and demonstrated a very musical specimen, and this wi...
Our Conclusion!
J*D has long been the brand of choice for aesthetes, for people driven more by the very clean and distinguished design, rather than by their movements (although those have been of high quality, yet lacked exclusiveness). The brand also stood out as a guar...
Superb coverage!
Superb coverage, commentary, and insight. The comparisons to the Blancpain brand are valuable insights that I would've partially noticed but immediately dismissed/overlooked unless I was in serious research/acquisition mode. Especially interested in the f...
"the next cult phenomenon"...
we said that already in 2003 when Manuel Emch was host to a small enthusiast's reception. It still did not happen - yet. You reference to Panerai is a most apt one I think. They are (historically) confined to two (or three) different case shapes and to mo...
Perhaps this has been said before . . .
. . . but it bears repeating, that J•D can be compared to persimmons - the flavor is either intoxicating or unpalatable, with nothing in between. Even though they have a tradition, it's not much of a draw, and technical execution isn't exactly an attracti...