Les Volumes du Temps:
Jaquet Droz counts the hours and minutes
in three dimensions
The Atelier in La Chaux-de-Fonds has unveiled a unique piece on which the time can be read in scenographic 3D of unprecedented depth. The dial is structured in boldly delineated volumes with soft curves, set above two trailing discs for the time display. A masterful work that spotlights champlevé enamel, designed by Fiona Djukanovic, a student at the Académie de Meuron. The piece will be offered for sale at the TimeForArt auction on 5 December, with proceeds donated in support of young talent at the Swiss Institute.
The original project was somewhat unorthodox: combining volumes, flat surfaces and variations of the same color, to literally sculpt time but without hands. A near-impossible challenge for a watch designer, given the interwoven and even antagonistic nature of the surfaces, perspectives and volumes involved in the work. Jaquet Droz therefore called on its artists and artisans to conceive a shared language, an aesthetic grammar that unites each component in an original, coherent creation: Les Volumes du Temps.
The piece is built around two central, opposing elements . Their form is so unique that no geometric term exists to describe them: two straight sides of a triangle, but with a gently curved third side that perfectly embraces the profile of the 41 mm white gold case. Their height also varies: at its maximum in the center, like an apex that draws the eye towards the hours and minutes, decreasing to its minimum at the edge to blend harmoniously into the thickness of the flange. Before being enameled, their surfaces are hand-engraved with a sunray motif.
Either side of this X-shaped figure, two broad champlevé enamel surfaces are formed of around forty parallelepipeds in infinite shades of blue, all obtained using hand-applied Grand Feu enamel. The top of each motif declines as it approaches the hours and minutes - once again guiding the eye towards their dedicated discs and creating a dynamic coherence with the overhanging volumes. Each disc is also hand-sunray finished, as is the central circle that covers it and points to each hour and minute. The resulting radiant effect means that the face of the Volume du Temps changes as the light strikes it at various angles, endlessly sculpting a new volume of time.
