The Swiss luxury brand’s new watch collection is an exquisite blend of its well-known watchmaking skills and high art.

Magic Lotus Automaton

In this stunning watch inspired by the famous automatons from centuries ago, the eternal cycle of life is presented through an animated naturalist fresco centred around the lotus flower. Four versions of the lotus on the dial represent the four seasons or the stages of life. A mother-of-pearl button at 3 o’clock symbolizes the unopened lotus bud, located in relief upon a corolla of gold petals evoking the spring season. To its left is another lotus flower in full bloom representing summer. Its petals are carved from mother-of-pearl and finished with a thin coat of translucent paint. At its heart is a yellow sapphire with gold prongs that represents the pistil and stamens, as if poised to fly away and give life to new flowers. Another lotus flower fallen on the water represents the season of fall while being carried away by the current. Finally, winter is marked at 6 o’clock by the seed pod of the aquatic plant. In this season the pod sinks to the bottom of the water to be naturally buried, thus protecting the precious seeds that will foster new lotus flowers the following spring. The pod is set with seven diamonds that represent the seeds as the symbol of new life. The dial comprises three sections: an immobile, onyx mini dial with gold hour and minute hands. It is surrounded by a crescent-shaped fixed disc that attaches the lotus life cycle to the piece. This composition of four seasons is suspended above the third peripheral disc, which rotates fully. The mobile disc houses the two animations – Koi, a fish famed for its longevity and a symbol of courage and perseverance, and the floating lotus animation. The animation lasts more than four minutes with eight full rotations of 30 seconds each. The power reserve (68 hours) indicator in the form of a hand-painted and hand-carved dragonfly in red gold, located between 8 and 9 o’clock, monitors the progress of this lengthy animation. When the power reserve is empty, the dragonfly rests on a lotus leaf. The 43 mm watch comes in two limited-edition versions, in red gold or white gold, 28 pieces each.

Grande Seconde Chronograph

For the first time, Jaquet Droz has added a chronograph complication in the Grande Seconde family of watches. The limited inaugural edition is restricted to 88 pieces and retains the basic figure 8 Grande Seconde layout of the collection. The watch features an eye-catching ivory-coloured Grand Feu enamel dial which is augmented by the Arabic and Roman numerals produced using Petit Feu enamel. The combination of the two is a tribute to the earliest pocket watches by Pierre Jaquet-Droz. The hour, minute and date hands are in red gold, while the chronograph’s seconds and minute hands are in blued steel. The retrograde date is indicated by a red-tipped gold hand. The 43mm 18K red gold case houses the in-house Jaquet Droz Calibre 26M5R that uses a column wheel construction in keeping with the great watchmaking tradition of the brand. The movement offers a power reserve of 40 hours. The Grande Seconde Chronograph comes with a handmade alligator strap with an 18K red gold buckle.

Grande Seconde Dual Time

This is a new, updated version of the Grande Seconde Dual Time collection watches. The changes are mainly aesthetic. The previous generation’s movement, as well as the figure-eight dial layout, has been retained. While the upper dial displays the local time, the lower seconds dial doubles up with a 24-hour second-time zone. What’s new is the placement of an azimuthal globe projection in which the continents are seen flat from the North Pole. The 24-hour home time display is split into two distinct 12- hour segments: white for daytime and black for night, making reading of the home time more intuitive. The classic round 43mm case is in 18K red gold and houses the self-winding Jaquet Droz 2663H24 movement which offers a power reserve of 65 hours.

Grande Seconde Skelet-One Ceramic

This watch is a contemporary take on the original pocket watch created by Pierre Jaquet-Droz in the 18th century that inspires the whole collection. The latest edition has done away with the black and gold livery of the first version introduced last year, and instead features a more modern and restrained blue and black palette. The airy, sculptural design of the watch reveals its inner workings. The traditional Grande Seconde dial,a transparent sapphire plate, is secured by blued steel screws. They are matched with blued steel hands, while the hour markers are in solid white gold, adding contrast to the dial. The classic round case measures 41.5mm and is presented in black ceramic. The watch is powered by in-house automatic calibre which has a power reserve of 68 hours.

Lady 8 Petite Mother-Of-Pearl

Jaquet-Droz transformed the emblematic design of its original model, the Lady 8, to create a much smaller and intimate version called the Lady 8 Petite. Although it measures only 25mm in diameter, the new model retains the key attributes of its predecessor, including the emblematic `8` design blended with Jaquet-Droz’s expertise in gem-setting. Comes in two versions, one with a malachite bead and dial, and the other with mother-of-pearl bead and dial. The stainless steel case of the latter is decorated with 41 diamonds. The top bead is made from an Asian Akoya pearl, found only in far-flung corners of Japan and China. It is complemented with a mother-of-pearl dial. The strap in saddle cut double tour brown calf leather with ecru stitching bears a stainless steel ardillon buckle set with 23 diamonds. Powered by mechanical self-winding Jaquet Droz calibre 6150 with a power reserve of 38 hours.

Petite Heure Minute Smalta Clara Humming Bird

This watch was introduced to celebrate the 280th anniversary of the brand. Its standout feature is the use of plique-à-jour enamel, or `smalta clara’ in Latin, in the creation of the colourful plumage of the humming bird on the 18K white gold main dial. The extremely demanding technique first developed 1500 years ago, requires a rare level of skill to prevent the enamel from cracking in the kiln. The result is a dial in the form of cells of different colours and shapes that are separated by thin gold wires, with the effect of illuminating the movement in soft, radiant light like that of a stained glass window. The sub-dial that indicates time is in mother-of-pearl, while the 35mm, 18K red gold case is set with 100 diamonds. The self-winding movement provides a power reserve of 38 hours.