The Story of the Unique — Exhibition in Singapore Celebrates 280 Years of Jaquet-Droz

Ever since the Swatch Group acquired Montres Jaquet Droz in 2000 it has worked hard to revive a sleeping beauty and bring back the old magic and 'wow' factor that had been instilled in the creations by founder, Pierre Jaquet-Droz While "The Story of the Unique" exhibition, as adapted for Singapore, only presents contemporary watches, these include pieces of which the founding master watchmaker and mechanical engineer would have been proud In the second half of the 18th century, the workshops of Jaquet-Droz were renowned for their ability to produce luxuriously decorated pocket watches, snuff boxes and objets de vertu and these pieces often incorporated technical features that had been used in the creation of three ingenious automatons - even today, 246 years after he was first created, the complexity of The Writer, possibly the most famous of the three, continues to astonish as the small android can be 'programmed' to write up to 40 characters in an elegant, fluid penmanship using a quill pen.

Montres Jaquet Droz continues the tradition of surprising and enchanting with pieces that combine the avant-garde spirit of its founder demonstrating exquisite craftsmanship Visitors to the Singapore exhibition will be able to admire the watch from all angles, as it is suspended from a gold chain inside its specially designed hand-painted box Their very distinctive dial design was inspired by a pocket watch created by Pierre Jaquet-Droz in 1784 and features two overlapping counters thus creating a figure 8, the symbol of infinity and eternity and a lucky number that makes it particularly appealing for the Chinese market.

The latest Grande Seconde "Tribute" collection released the watch for the first time in a yellow gold model in a limited edition of 88 pieces, each distinguished by an individual serial number enamelled in red on the ivory Grand Feu enamel dial. . Source