Over 70 local journalists and VIP clients had the chance to admire the Tropical Bird Repeater, the new timepiece from the Automata collection, during a special event which was held at the Nicolas G. Hayek Center, located at the heart of Ginza, Japan’s iconic luxury shopping area. The dial of this automaton watch displays several simultaneous or consecutive animations with peacock, tropical leaves, hummingbird, toucan, dragonflies and waterfall.
Mr. Marc Aellen, Vice President and Head of International Sales at Jaquet Droz, made a presentation for the guests. Discover a glimpse of the event in the video below.
Minimalism is not a quality that instantly springs to mind when you consider Jaquet Droz. However, while its elaborate automata and complex enameling are certainly hallmarks of this new, Jaquet Droz has a more restrained side too. The new Grande Seconde Quantieme Ivory Enamel is the latest take on the pared-down design that first premiered in 2011. It employs a blend of grande and petit feu enameling to make a multi-tier dial up with a lot of open space and stark contrast. It’s a study in why less, so frequently, is more.The star of this series with this watch is your dual-technique enamel dial. The most important ivory white floor is created with expansive feu tooth — grand feu signifies “large fire” in French and grand feu enamel is layered and then fired at temperatures exceeding 1,000 degrees Celsius. When most brands would subsequently use ink or lacquer to add the black and red markers to the tooth, Jaquet Droz chose to go the more difficult path, layering petit feu tooth — “little flame,” baked in a lower temperature — so the color is really a part of the dial itself, not something added on top. This is extremely hard to achieve, particularly when you add the numerous depths to the mixture. The large seconds register and date register compose the base of the figure-eight motif and the latter is countersunk only a tiny bit. The Roman numerals used for the hours/minutes contrast well with the more casual Arabic numerals used under. All in all, the dial utilizes lots of subtle contrasts to make a look that is harmonious but not without tension.
