One of my favorite Jaquet Droz timepieces is their stunning Quantieme Perpetuel Email watch from the Hommage La Chaux-de-Fonds 1738 Collection. In my opinion, one of the better looking perpetual calendar timepieces of recent introduction, this watch’s dial layout impresses me with its clarity, lack of clutter, and classical yet quirky elements. I particularly find the dual retrograde hands for the days of the week and the date to be visually enticing, not just for their orientation upon the dial (with an up-and-down rather than left-to-right motion) but for their exotic serpentine shape–reminiscent of the sinuous movements of a snake, or perhaps the distinctive curved Kris blades borne by traditional Philippine warriors. Somehow all of these details just make the stunning Jaquet Droz enamel dials that much more captivating.

It’s amazing how much more appealing this Jaquet Droz watch is to me, than the company’s Equation Du Temps watch, which just doesn’t do it for me–which despite it’s fine craftsmanship and admirable complication, I simply cannot look at without immediately thinking of an upside down smiling cartoon face–namely, that of Charlie Brown, or one of the irreverent characters from South Park! A personal issue, I know, but there you have it.