Baselworld 2010: Jaquet Droz
By Melvyn Teillol-Foo
Jaquet Droz (J*D) is one of the four brands in the SWATCH Group that market themselves as haute horlogerie brands. At the entrance to the SWATCH Bunker at Baselworld, those four brands are split into two bastions: Blancpain and Glashuette Original on the right, with Breguet and Jaquet Droz on the left. Since the departure of Mr Manuel Emchs, Mr Nicholas Hayek Sr. has taken leadership of J*D and sent in his Breguet troopers.
We were more interested in what they had in store for J*D than the actual watches themselves. The press releases of the J*D novelties have been posted on our website already so I highlight the ones that caught my eye.
NOVELTIES
The big story at J*D is the expansion of their customer base and thrust into China. They will keep the exclusivity of the high-end, almost bespoked watchmaking with the fancy dials, piece unique and low production limited editions at high prices.
At the same time, they will design watches with a broader appeal and in steel to conquer the lower price point. History, brand name and marketing are very important in China as seen from the popularity ranking lists there with Omega and Rado at the top of the mid-range and Vacheron Constantin, Cartier and Breguet leading the top end. With their shiny new factory and other SWATCH resources, J*D want to ramp up production far beyond what they do now.
The other big story is that just as J*D has won their legal battle to use screwed sub-dial appliqués, their general design has moved away from all those fussy sub-dial motifs – talk about irony! Check these out….
Steel J*D watches
Grande Heure Minute Onyx
For the Year of the Tiger…
TIME WRITER
Finally, from their patrimony of automaton-maker Jaquet Droz, they made an updated version for the 21st century. The full resources of mighty SWATCH Group took years to come up with this mechanical marvel that writes the time shown on the clocks on a card.
Conclusion:
With the expansion of the product appeal, maybe the re-vamped J*D will have the breadth and depth of products to support a forum on PuristSPro again? We’ll keep watch-ing their progress.