There are watches one chooses. And then there are those born of an encounter, of a shared passion and of a story that could belong to only one collector.
At Jaquet Droz, the unique piece is never a mere exercise in customization. It becomes a dialogue between the manufacture, its client and the world that feeds its imagination. An approach that here takes on a very particular dimension with a creation made for a member of the Supercar Owners Circle, a prestigious club bringing together enthusiasts of exceptional cars.
The story begins on the winding roads of the Swiss Alps, continues in the workshops of La Chaux-de-Fonds and culminates in a watch whose every detail echoes an exceptional Italian automobile. A 42 mm tourbillon in Plasma ceramic, driven by the Tourbillon 8 Jours, whose oscillating weight reproduces a rim as complex as it is iconic.
A creation born of a night of sketching and become, a few months later, a true unique piece of Haute Horlogerie.
On this page
- When automobiles and watchmaking speak the same language
- A design imagined in a single night
- A creation followed from a distance
- A case in asphalt-colored Plasma ceramic
- The Tourbillon 8 Jours, mechanical heart of the unique piece
- A dial that carries the gaze into the Alps
- The detail that only the owner knows
- An oscillating weight beyond the norm
- A watch built around a personal passion
- From the Oberalp Pass to La Chaux-de-Fonds
- The unique piece as an experience
- When fine mechanics meets Haute Horlogerie
- A watch as unique as its owner
- Frequently asked questions
When automobiles and watchmaking speak the same language
For two years, Jaquet Droz has accompanied the Supercar Owners Circle at some of its gatherings in Switzerland.
The partnership rests on a fairly natural closeness. On one side, a watchmaking house that cultivates a very personal vision of Haute Horlogerie. On the other, a circle of collectors united by their passion for the most exclusive automobiles.
In both worlds, mechanics hold a central place.
It must be precise, high-performing, but also the carrier of an emotion.
This shared philosophy takes on its full meaning during the SOC gatherings in the Andermatt region and the Oberalp pass. The supercars set off on the alpine roads, stringing together bends and elevation changes before drivers and collectors gather around a table.
It was during one of these get-togethers that a collector told the Jaquet Droz team about his passion for his new automobile.
An Italian car fitted with a V12, belonging to a generation that has become particularly rare, since it is among the last supercars in the world to carry on this mechanical architecture.
A model that combines the qualities of a grand GT with the character of a true supercar.
For the Jaquet Droz designers, the inspiration is immediate.
A design imagined in a single night
Most Haute Horlogerie projects require long months of reflection.
This one begins differently.
At the end of the dinner, the Jaquet Droz designers withdraw to work on several avenues capable of translating the automotive passion of their guest.
A few hours later, the first drawings are done.
The next morning, the collector discovers the sketches.
The anecdote could stop there.
On the contrary, it marks the beginning of a true collaboration.
For at Jaquet Droz, a unique piece is not just a matter of applying a few decorative elements to an existing watch. The owner takes part in the creative process, exchanges with the teams, validates the directions and gradually helps to define the identity of his watch.
The project then becomes a true co-production.
A creation followed from a distance
The Jaquet Droz Studio 8 plays a central role in this adventure.
Between his visits to La Chaux-de-Fonds, the collector can follow the evolution of his watch thanks to the 4K cameras installed in the workshop.
Prototyping, technical choices, evolution of the components: every stage can be observed from a distance.
This way of working reflects a particular philosophy of customization.
The client does not simply wait to receive a watch imagined by the house.
He accompanies its birth.
He gradually becomes a stakeholder in the creative process.
A closeness that perfectly matches the spirit of the Jaquet Droz unique pieces.
A case in asphalt-colored Plasma ceramic
Very quickly, the owner settles his choices.
The first decision concerns the case.
His automobile has an aluminum chassis, favoring lightness and rigidity. For his watch, the collector wishes to find that same pursuit of resistance and lightness through a particularly contemporary material: ceramic.
Jaquet Droz then proposes its Plasma Ceramic to him.
This technology makes it possible to obtain a matte and subtly sandblasted finish, in an asphalt gray shade particularly evocative of the automotive world.
The raw material, however, is white.
It is transformed by a process requiring a pass through a furnace at more than 20,000 °C, giving the ceramic its characteristic appearance and coloring.
The choice of the material thus goes well beyond a simple aesthetic pursuit.
It establishes a direct link with the world of the car that inspired the piece.
The case adopts a diameter of 42 mm, a dimension consistent with the mechanical presence of the tourbillon movement.
The Tourbillon 8 Jours, mechanical heart of the unique piece
For the movement, the choice seemed almost obvious.
A lover of fine mechanics, the collector opts for the Tourbillon 8 Jours by Jaquet Droz.
This emblematic complication of the house here becomes the heart of a composition largely inspired by his automobile.
The movement adopts a galvanic black finish, while the tourbillon receives a bright polish.
The contrast between the two surfaces allows the regulator to stand out visually from the movement.
Like a mechanical part that would naturally draw the eye at the heart of an engine, the tourbillon here becomes the point of convergence of the dial.
The construction also plays on the two tones of the collector’s automobile, in a black and silver interpretation.
A dial that carries the gaze into the Alps
The dial constitutes one of the other great chapters of this creation.
Jaquet Droz calls on its traditional artistic crafts to produce a decoration executed exclusively by hand in miniature painting.
The motif is painted on a sapphire glass plate placed above a gold dial base.
The decoration then tells a precise scene.
In the foreground appears the supercar in one of the legendary bends of the Oberalp pass.
In the background, the snow-capped peaks of Andermatt complete the landscape.
The watch thus becomes a kind of miniature window opening onto the very setting in which the idea of this unique piece was born.
The choice of sapphire glass contributes to this sense of depth and allows the movement to remain present beneath the decoration.
The car is therefore not simply depicted.
It is placed back in its environment.
The detail that only the owner knows
But the dial is not the only place where the automobile finds itself transposed into the watch.
The real challenge hides behind the case.
And it is reserved for the collector’s eye.
His wish was to reproduce one of the rims of his car on the oscillating weight of the movement.
On paper, the idea may seem relatively simple.
In reality, it constitutes a true challenge of Haute Horlogerie.
These automobile rims possess a particularly complex architecture, combining alloy, aerodynamic profile and specific geometry.
The yellow hub cap is moreover one of their identifying elements.
Rendering these volumes at the scale of a mechanical rotor thus requires completely rethinking the construction of the oscillating weight.
An oscillating weight beyond the norm
To allow the oscillating weight to retain sufficient efficiency, the Jaquet Droz artisans choose white gold.
The six branches of this “oscillating rim” adopt a particularly complex geometry.
They are profiled on several levels and develop a helical construction.
The difficulty lies not only in the visual reproduction of the rim.
It must also function as a true oscillating weight.
The object must therefore satisfy two requirements at once: respect the geometry imagined to reproduce the automobile wheel and retain the kinetic properties necessary for the automatic winding of the movement.
The result is an oscillating weight that goes well beyond mere decoration.
It becomes a true aesthetic and mechanical complication.
According to the Jaquet Droz teams, never had a rotor of such complexity been machined in Haute Horlogerie by the house.
A challenge worthy of this unique piece.
A watch built around a personal passion
This project illustrates a particular way of approaching watchmaking customization.
Everything begins with a passion.
Not with an existing reference, nor with a simple combination of colors.
The starting point is an automobile and everything it represents for its owner: the mechanics, the performance, the materials, the lines, but also the memories tied to the alpine roads on which it is driven.
Jaquet Droz gradually transforms these elements into watchmaking language.
The Plasma ceramic evokes asphalt and the pursuit of lightness.
The black and silver recall the car.
The miniature-painted dial carries the scene into the Alps.
The tourbillon translates the fascination with mechanics.
And the oscillating weight literally becomes a part of the car transposed into the watch.
From the Oberalp Pass to La Chaux-de-Fonds
There is something particularly coherent in the journey of this creation.
It was born during an automotive gathering in the heart of the Alps.
It draws inspiration from an Italian car designed around mechanical performance.
It is drawn by the Jaquet Droz designers the day after a dinner.
Then it joins the workshops of La Chaux-de-Fonds, where the artisans will gradually transform these ideas into watchmaking components.
The Oberalp pass and the Jura workshops thus become the two ends of one and the same story.
On one side, the automobile in motion.
On the other, watchmaking mechanics in motion.
Two worlds that ultimately share the same obsession: the precision of the gesture and the beauty of mechanics.
The unique piece as an experience
This creation above all recalls what distinguishes a true unique piece from a mere special edition.
A limited edition reproduces an idea conceived for several collectors.
A unique piece, for its part, can start from a story that belongs to only one person.
In the present case, each element has a personal origin.
The choice of the ceramic.
The colors.
The landscape.
The car.
The rim.
Right down to the complexity of the rotor.
The watch then becomes a kind of mechanical portrait of its owner.
It does not only bear his name.
It tells a part of his world.
When fine mechanics meets Haute Horlogerie
The pairing between Jaquet Droz and the Supercar Owners Circle finds here a particularly accomplished expression.
The two worlds meet without one taking precedence over the other.
The car inspires the watch, but the watch keeps its own language.
The tourbillon remains a watchmaking complication.
Miniature painting remains an artistic craft.
The Plasma ceramic bears witness to the expertise of the house.
And the oscillating weight, as spectacular as it may be, remains above all a functional component of the movement.
It is this ability to transform an automotive passion into a true watchmaking creation that gives this unique piece all its singularity.
A watch as unique as its owner
Jaquet Droz likes to recall that each watch is as unique as the person who wears it.
This creation probably constitutes one of its most literal illustrations.
A dinner.
An encounter.
A few sketches made in one night.
An Italian car with a V12 engine.
The roads of the Oberalp.
An alpine landscape.
A case in Plasma Ceramic.
A Tourbillon 8 Jours.
And an oscillating weight reproducing a six-branch automobile rim, whose geometry required machining work unprecedented for the house.
At the end of this journey, the watch is no longer only an object of Haute Horlogerie.
It becomes the mechanical memory of a passion.
And perhaps that is precisely the true definition of a unique piece: a watch that no one else could wear without an essential part of its story disappearing.
Frequently asked questions
A unique piece: a 42 mm tourbillon in asphalt-colored Plasma ceramic, born of a collector’s automotive passion and made to measure in the workshops of La Chaux-de-Fonds.
The Tourbillon 8 Jours by Jaquet Droz, whose oscillating weight reproduces an automobile rim as complex as it is iconic.
Plasma ceramic, in an asphalt-colored shade, for a 42 mm case.
It reproduces the rim of an exceptional Italian automobile, echoing the world that inspired the watch.
From an encounter during an SOC gathering in the Andermatt region and the Oberalp pass, where a collector shared his automotive passion with Jaquet Droz. The owner then took part in the creative process via the manufacture’s Studio 8.
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