BY HARLAN CHAPMAN-GREEN
For 2023, Jaquet Droz joins the lineup of watchmakers making one-off watches to fund the research for the fight against Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD), one of the most common and severe forms of muscular dystrophy. Last time around, Jaquet Droz brought along a special version of the Skelet-One Tourbillon which had loads of orange accents and generally looked fantastic, it also met its auction estimation.
For 2023 they’ve gone even more mental, distilling all the mad colours of the 1960s into one watch which they’ve made specially for the auction. It’s based on an existing model and is tied in with the most legendary rock ‘n’ roll band ever, and one of my personal favourites, The Rolling Stones.
Jaquet Droz may be renowned as a watchmaker now, but it’s a very old name indeed and is also known for its automata, of which the company founder, Pierre Jaquet-Droz, was a master builder. For this watch, the dial base spins around like a record while the hand-decorated musical instruments, from Ronnie Wood’s Fender Strat to the drums of the late great Charlie Watts, stay sat above. The Stones mouth moves around, too, and the Hi-Fi stylus/tonearm sticking out from under the colourful dial represents the watch’s power reserve. Also, the Stones mouth on the time dial glows in the dark, because why not?
Inside the 43mm x 16.96mm 18k white gold case is the self-winding 2653AT2 calibre. While Jaquet Droz might be an old name, its watch movements have silicone components and all the other modern accoutrements of a modern watch.
Coupled with a yellow strap, I think this watch looks fab. The estimated price is somewhere between CHF250,000 and CHF300,000, and I’ll think this will match that.
