PRESS RELEASE
LA GRANDE SECONDE MEDIUM MINÉRALE
Hommage Genève 1784
For the last four years, Manufacture Jaquet Droz has been the only luxury watchmaker to offer exclusive mineral dials, which it is now bringing out in a new size: 39mm.
Launching an exclusive range of timepieces with 39mm mineral dials – available in limited editions of 8 as well as one-of-a-kind pieces – Jaquet Droz is asserting its expertise in crafting rare, precious materials to create mineral dials, which it was the first to introduce in 2003.
Only a few names evoke tradition as well as a constant quest for technological and creative advances, and Jaquet Droz is one of them. Since the 18th century, when it was preferred by the courts of Europe as well as Middle Empire nobility in China, the watchmaker has been creating irresistible, stunning timepieces. For more than two centuries, the Manufacture from La Chaux-de-Fonds has relied on purity of design, elegance of line and prodigious craftsmanship to offer a unique blend of tradition and modernity, aesthetic appeal and exclusivity. This is the brand's most distinctive trademark, what connoisseurs prize the most.
The mineral dial timepieces are faithful to this heritage. Since the dial is the true face of a watch, this expertise earned Jaquet Droz a reputation as a past master of Couture watchmaking, from the days of Versailles, when its creations were presented to Marie Antoinette, to the present day, attested by the most prestigious shop windows of Paris, Geneva, New York or Moscow. Hailed by professionals and coveted by discerning watch-lovers during the past four years, these stone-cut disks have opened up a whole new dimension and connected connoisseurs with the intimate treasures of the Earth. Gracing one-of-a-kind timepieces or limited editions, these stones, crafted with painstaking care, yield wristwatches of rich and stunningly imaginative beauty.
Applying this special technique to the 39mm Grande Seconde Medium, Jaquet Droz invites you to travel or dream. Whether you choose a mineral from the earth or a bit of meteorite from the sky, it will be beautifully set in a smooth-polished 18-carat white gold case with a self-winding mechanical movement and a power reserve of 68 hours. All of the Manufacture's codes are brought to bear in order to perpetuate the legend.
A dream unlike any other, crafted using the finest materials and techniques. It takes great persistence to choose the stones, to angle and make the precision cuts, to mount the white gold ring with blued steel screws… in short, to create a work of art. An art known only to the master dial-makers at Jaquet Droz.
Beauty is the result of this labour of love and mystery. There is the magical blue of turquoise, venerated by the Persians and Native Americans, the milky green of jadeite, and red-flecked blood jasper. Jaquet Droz has practiced a sublime art to obtain one-of-a-kind masterpieces from precious stones forged deep in the earth. Some of the gemstones – lapis lazuli, black and white chalcedony, meteorite and sugulite – appear translucent or opaque, depending on the light, and will come in a limited edition of only eight. The same is true for black onyx as well as aventurine, a man-made marvel that has often been compared to the philosopher's stone, whose blue shades gleam with subtle flecks of light.
The Manufacture Jaquet Droz has given beauty a new form, a fabulous creation to grace the wrist, at once the product of exacting standards and the quintessence of beauty.