The 2012 Jaquet Droz Grande Seconde Off-Centered Ivory Enamel J006033200 is delivered in a finely crafted, albeit slightly oversized red-gold body and features the most elegant hand-made dial that features rare (and expensive, since the process cannot be automated) Grande Feu enameling, off-centered sub-dials forming figure eight and a nice mix of Roman and Arabic numerals.
The watch sports a rare “off-centered” design of its dial with its small seconds sub-dial located at 7 o’clock.
You can’t even call it “small seconds” since the display is even larger than the hours and minutes sub-dial, which is placed at 2 o’clock. Well, that’s why the watch has the “Grande Seconde” part in its name!
Another nice thing about this layout is that the axes of both sub-dials form an isosceles triangle with the red gold setting crown, which is ergonomically placed at 4 o’clock.
There is a nice twist to its overlapping sub-dials. Although featuring nine Roman numerals that are printed around the chapter ring, the smaller hours and minutes sub-dial has the numerals converted to Arabic ones in the sector where it overlaps with the “large seconds” display.
Like their last year’s Grande Seconde Quantieme model, the Grande Seconde Ivory Enamel features the same slightly oversized body 43 millimeters in diameter, which is now crafted from a much more expensive 18-carat red gold alloy.
There is no info regarding its thickness, but, taking into account that both models share different versions of the same base movement, there is a good chance that this model will, too, belong to the range of ultra-thin automatic watches.
While many watchmakers resort to decreasing the working frequency of their movements in order to provide them with more juice, Jaquet Droz solved the problem with a less popular double-barrel design. Despite beating at the usual frequency of 28,800 vibrations per hour, the caliber stores enough power for the watch to tick for almost three days (minimum 68 hours) in a row.
The caliber JD 2663A that powers the timepiece is, as usual, sourced from Blancpain that currently owns the former Frederic Piguet manufacture.
Being essentially a seriously modified (and heavily re-decorated) version of the iconic Caliber FP1150, the mechanism is reliable and efficient offering you probably the best value for money ratio available in this niche.
But, of course, however good the mechanism is, the retail price of $20,000 still seems a bit steep making this beautiful timekeeper a millionaire’s accessory of choice.
See also: Jaquet Droz The Eclipse Onyx (J012630270)
Photos: Jaquet Droz
Jaquet Droz Grande Seconde Off-Centered Ivory Enamel J006033200 specification
Price: $20,000 (MSRP)
Movement: Automatic, caliber JD 2663A, double-barrel, in-house, Swiss Made
Number of jewels: 30
Movement frequency: 28,800 vph
Power reserve: 68 hours
Movement decoration: 22-carat white gold oscillating weight
Functions: Hours, minutes, off-centered subsidiary seconds
Case: Red gold, 18-karat
Shape: Round
Size: 43.00 mm
Case height: 12.80 mm
Dial: Ivory; Hand-crafted Grand Feu enamel
Numerals: Arabic and Roman
Hour markers: Black
Hands: Red gold
Water resistance: 30 meters
Strap: Rolled-edge hand-made black alligator leather strap with 18-carat red gold ardillon buckle
Crystal: Sapphire
Back: Sapphire