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A free-spirited figure, explorer of avant-garde trends who breaks taboos and barriers in the name of an art that is in perpetual transformation: that which is true for Chantal Thomass is also true for Jaquet Droz. The watchmaker and fashion icon were destined to meet. The result of this union is a one-of-a-kind automaton set with diamonds and minerals representing a mesmerising manifestation of master craftsmanship and fashion.
Chantal Thomass imagined a timepiece that was dominated by her colours: black, white, red. But the fashion icon knew that the graphic palette is one thing, the materials are another. To bring these tones to life, she opted for different materials that would each bring texture and volume. On an onyx watch dial, a perspective image of a chequerboard is created from cubes of black onyx and cacholong. While the former is well known on Jaquet Droz models, the inclusion of the latter was a first. The marquetry work in stone is created with 34 individual parts. Each cube measures between 2.25mm and 0.45mm in height. They are machined and assembled individually, by hand, at five different heights in order to accentuate the 3D perspective of the chequerboard.
Surrounding this central design, a glossy black spiral-shaped mobile peripheral disc is entwined with a coiled section set with 376 snow-set diamonds totalling 0.63 ct. A single press of the pushbutton at 3 o’clock starts the movement: the exterior disc completes one revolution in 30 seconds, for a maximum of four minutes (8 complete turns) and can be started or stopped on request by pressing the same push-button. The automaton part is equipped with two barrels and the timekeeping part works with two additional independent barrels for 68 hours of power reserve.
The artist has set a finishing touch designed to destructure a composition playing with symmetry effects, with Chantal Thomass taking 11 of the red pairs of lips so dear to her and placed them across the dial. Ten are gold, hand-sculpted appliques that are scattering on the peripheral mobile (and therefore, like the entirety of the disc, pass below the watch dial). The 11th is hand-painted, used as a signature for Chantal Thomass, placed below that of Jaquet Droz.
December 19, 2024