The Philosophy Of The Unique
THERE IS A distinct romance to the historical, centuries-old timepiece. Consider, for instance, an 18thcentury pocket watch. In all likelihood, it was created as a one-off commission for a specific customer. Its ornate finish and finely tuned mechanics can live on in any number of fine timepieces today, but the spirit of bespoke manufacture is a little harder to come by.
One such avenue is through Jaquet Droz and the Swiss watchmaker’s The Philosophy of the Unique programme. Through this, the maison creates and customises pieces tailored for the individual client. The process is bilateral; it begins with the customer proposing his or her own design and proceeds into a back-and-forth between themselves and the manufacture as the details of construction are finalised and implemented. The entire endeavour needs two to six months to complete, depending on the techniques required.
For inspiration, the brand and its patrons need not look far – Jaquet Droz was founded in 1738 and boasts an impressive portfolio of gorgeously decorated and unique timepieces dating back to the sophisticated clocks, watches
and automata made by founder Pierre Jaquet-Droz himself. The Jaquet-Droz family’s pioneering arts were also applied to various personal items such as snuffboxes and urns.
The base timepiece models of today that are suitable for customisation stem from the maison’s more traditional fare – classic, minimalist pieces that make an excellent canvas for customisation. Potential complications include a tourbillon and minute repeater. The Twelve Cities world timer is a particularly interesting choice as a customised cities dial means one’s hometown is never left out. The maison’s famed automata are another interesting platform for personalisation and would add an extra layer to an already distinctive timepiece.
The traditional decorative arts that made the JaquetDroz family famous are alive today in the maison’s Ateliers d’Art, which is deployed unfettered for The Philosophy of the Unique. The brand is an expert in enamel, with grand feu as a signature technique and most often the enduring and timeless base for more extensive artistic finishing. Miniature painting is one such time-honoured craft; simple in concept and limited only by imagination, but painstaking