Damas is adding the legendary Jaquet Droz watches to its long list of prestigious brands in the UAE.

Founded in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland in 1738, this manufacturer has preserved its expertise beyond compare.

On the strength of its unprecedented technical superiority and its attention to creativity, Jaquet Droz men’s and women’s timepieces have become one of the most outstanding names in contemporary watchmaking.

‘Grand feu’ enamelling, a dial gleaming with onyx, obsidian or quartz, blued steel hands, a tourbillon carriage in hypnotic motion, the power of a chronograph or perpetual calendar… Welcome to the world of Jaquet Droz, where time is marked and mastered, where fine craftsmanship goes hand in hand with beauty and purity of line.

One look at a Jaquet Droz watch tells the story: it may be compared to a work of art. Behind the deliberately simple curves of these rare timepieces lie treasures of ingenious design, the expertise of centuries, one-of-a-kind watchmaking techniques and a never-ending quest to increase purity of line. 

Today, true luxury is unostentatious and comes in limited numbers.

That is why Jaquet Droz is bringing out numbered series of Numerus Clausus models.

Their powerful symbolism is based on the numerology of the number eight, which signifies fulfillment and infinity and refers to the close proximity of the two dials on the Grande Seconde.

Mohammed Tawheed Abdullah, managing director of Damas, said:

“Craftsmen and workshops have disappeared, their brilliant mechanical creations stopped forever.

“Yet some manufactures of Haute Horlogerie have traversed the centuries, seeking to elucidate a mystery reiterated with each passing second. Jaquet Droz is one of them.

“The watches transcend the confines of formal court life, so lavish and intoxicated with excess. They, with their self-winding double barrel mechanical movements, are outstanding works of precision engineering crafted in precious materials. Formal and contemporary, they grace the wrists of women and men with sensuous elegance.”

Its founder Pierre Jaquet Droz (1721-1790), watchmaker, jeweller, inventor and merchant extraordinaire, was a genius who impressed engineers, courtiers and royalty, including Marie-Antoinette at age 20, from Europe to the Imperial City in China. Magnificent pieces have been preserved. Some of these spectacular mechanical figures (automata) still work, such as ‘The Writer’, which actually sets pen to paper and writes.

There are musical watches encrusted with pearls and rubies, with carillons, mechanical singing birds and stunningly precise enamelling. It is as if memories of fabulous royal celebrations, or the soft whisper of fine fabrics as garments fall during amorous trysts, were captured in the gleam of gold and the glow of gems, colours as bright as ever. It's like a scene from Amadeus by Milos Forman, Barry Lyndon by Stanley Kubrick, or Liaisons Dangereuses by Choderlos de Laclos.

The Grande Seconde pocket watch, an icon of 18th-century watchmaking, proves it. Against the same ivory background one finds two dials, one for the hours-minutes and one for the seconds, with their off-centered hands and their combination of Roman and Arabic numerals. This early landmark design would eventually form the cornerstone of the Jaquet Droz philosophy, based on impeccable technique and subtly daring design. Today, it continues to inspire the look of the brand.

Men throughout the ages, created instruments of measurement, some simple and others sophisticated, to tackle this elusive challenge, where the timeless joins the quotidian, and the duration of a heartbeat can seem longer than an hour on a sundial. Like their dreams, their legacy to history is bold and fascinating. Yet longevity requires more than a prestigious history and legendary name, although Jaquet Droz has both.

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