Sophisticated horological complications find their place on ladies’ watches, thereby lending a more technical touch to the customary elegance of these models. In black & white or colorful interpretations, appearing on animalthemed, floral or plain dials, brands effectively showcase their expertise through such refined technical feats. These timepieces intended for women and equipped with a perpetual calendar, tourbillon or other complication have no cause to blush when compared with men’s watches – quite the opposite !
Quantième Annuel réf. 4947 – As its name suggests, this 2017 release indicates the date, the days and the months, complemented by moon phases, in an exquisitely feminine interpretation featuring a double vertical and horizontal satin finish reminiscent of wild shantung silk. CHF 44’000.–
Quantième Annuel réf. 4947 © Patek Philippe
Grande Seconde Tourbillon (Mother-of-Pearl) – A reinterpretation of the Grande Seconde model created in the Age of Enlightenment, this model with its mother-of-pearl dial is graced with blue hours and minutes hands sweeping over Roman numerals, and a tourbillon indicating the seconds. CHF 116’750.–
Grande Seconde Tourbillon © Jaquet Droz
MasterGraff Floral Tourbillon (Pink Mother-of-Pearl) – Equipped with a tourbillon caliber specially designed for a feminine model, this timepiece indicates the hours and minutes by means of rounded hands gliding over gently spinning handpainted white gold flowers. CHF 250’000.–
MasterGraff Floral Tourbillon © Graff
Lady Compliquée Peacock Black – Winner of the “Ladies’ High- Mech” prize in the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève 2015, the peacock return in a black and white version indicating the minutes on its feathers when its tail is unfurled, while the hour displayed on a rotating disk corresponds to the numeral facing the crown. CHF 37’260.–
Lady Compliqué Peacock Black © Fabergé
The motion is treated with ruthenium and contains a black PVD rotor to give it a dark look to coincide with the black ceramic case.All things considered, these new Jaquet Droz Grande Seconde Ceramic watches are fairly interesting in that they match the classic and understated design of the first Grande Seconde watch with contemporary ceramic cloth. The end result, judging from the media photos at least, seems rather pleasant to me. Certainly, these ceramic models will be significantly more scratch resistant than the non-ceramic versions that are in stainless steel or stone. The Jaquet Droz Grande Seconde White and Black Ceramic Clous de Paris are both priced at $14,600 each. The Jaquet Droz Grande Seconde Power Reserve Ceramic Clous de Paris, on the other hand, is $16,800. Each is limited to 28 pieces. Among the newest Jaquet Droz Grande Seconde Tourbillon watches in the boutique Swiss watch maker (that is probably the smallest and most special high-end brand under the Swatch Group umbrella) is this eight-piece limited version reference J013033242 Grande Seconde Tourbillon Paillonnée you visit here. I last covered another edition of the Jaquet Droz Grande Seconde Tourbillon see here in 2015. I get more into a technical discussion of this foundation watch in that guide, but I will touch on the major points here and focus on the paillonnée enamel technique used to decorate the dial.What is important to mention is that over the last several decades Jaquet Droz has spent rather heavily in not only bringing many of these artistic cosmetic techniques in-house (as opposed to utilizing external artists and craftspeople), but also in rediscovering missing techniques that were used in the past to make a lot of the gorgeous enamel work on pocket watches and other items from a few hundred years back.
