I have to admit, in life as much as there are subtle shades of grey, it is primarily a black and white world. Black, a color that is timeless, evoking the spirit of serious, masculine, bold and iconic with that subtle hint of sod off! That’s what I like about it, that as much as people perceive it in many different ways, it is what it is and always stays powerful and timeless. OK, I know enough with my synopsis on the color black, right? Well, in the last five years black has been the over powering color used primarily in men’s watch cases. All over the world, in many different brands, whether it is a couple hundred dollars to over a hundred thousand dollars, this aesthetic has been used to capture the essence of the everyday man.
Who would ever have thought that even the big boys, the masters of complications would ever experiment with this sort of look? but shit it is happening everyday, and for the first time it is happening to one of my favorite brands, Jaquet Droz. The brand of late has been up and down like an erection for the last few years. This jolt has created a surge for this prestigious brand who are known for their very well finished movements alongside their magnificent dial work to combine homage to the 1784 Geneva collection, and at the same time stay relevant today.
This bad boy is made out of high-tech ceramic, and measures 44 mm in case diameter, the movement is the automatic Jaquet Droz caliber 4063D with 30 jewels and a power reserve of 68 hours which is indicated in red almost like a fuel gauge located on the left hand side of the dial. This dial is jet black like the black ceramic case, with the hours and minutes displayed in white roman numerals overlapping into the second subdial displaying seconds with Arabic numerals 10,20,30,40 and 50 in white with white indices markers in between for the rest of the numerals. The red second hand gives life to this very stealth dial, and the overlapping subdials making the number 8 is a reference to how the number eight is an auspicious number in the Chinese culture for health,prosperity and fortune, which has become the symbolic icon of Jaquet-Droz brand identity. The high grade rubber strap has a PVD coated steel deployant buckle for that last bit of technical durability.
To be honest, I am really fascinated, where in a world of conservative stuffy snobbery, such a well respected brand has chosen to go bold, stay true to their identity, and re-surge by making a statement of NOW, by making good use of the power of black!
pic courtesy of www. jaquet-droz.com
JOHNNY FLYBACK 