Tourbillon Dragon White Gold - John Howe:
A unique work of art finds its watchmaking twin
Jaquet Droz is reaffirming its commitment to Art in all its forms with the formation of a creative triptych bringing together a collector, the artist of their choice, and the artists at Jaquet Droz.
These three voices join forces to create a single piece, to the collector’s specific brief. The artist creates a painting, sculpture or engraving that is reproduced in miniature by Jaquet Droz’s Ateliers d’Art and incorporated into a unique hand-crafted timepiece. In this way, the collector receives two works of art: the original piece and its watchmaking twin, linked by time.
This immersive, collaborative approach gives the collector the opportunity to keep the soul of their masterpiece on their wrist, and to travel with it.
Today, Jaquet Droz is unveiling the fruit of this creative triptych, with a 43-mm tourbillon in white gold. Its dial has been hand-painted by the artists at Jaquet Droz and features a reproduction of a painting by John Howe, artistic director of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and friend of the brand. The original work and its reproduction on this watch were both acquired by the same collector.
John Howe and Jaquet Droz have been working together for five years. Close neighbours – Canadian John Howe has lived in Neuchâtel for several decades – they share a passion for the world of fantasy. For the creator of the graphic universe of The Lord of the Rings, it is fantasy film: the poetry of The Hobbit, translating Tolkien's work into gigantic frescoes brought to the screen by Peter Jackson. For Jaquet Droz, it is the fantastic talent of its artists and watchmakers, supported since 1738 by a heritage that is constantly reinvented.
The new Tourbillon Dragon John Howe embodies the coming together of these very different worlds. Following in the footsteps of its artistic collaborations with Shirley Zhang, Rusudan Petviashvili, Lara Marino, Chantal Thomass, the Rolling Stones and Bon Jovi, Jaquet Droz has offered the owner of a unique painting by John Howe the opportunity to have the artist’s masterpiece reproduced by hand on the dial of their watch.
With this in mind, the collector chose the pure aesthetic of the Grande Seconde Tourbillon, in a 43-mm white gold case, as the “canvas” for this work of art. The silhouette of the iconic Jaquet Droz “8” features hours and minutes at 6 o'clock, topped by the tourbillon aperture at 12 o’clock. A blued hand on its bridge indicates the seconds, flying over a silicon escapement that guarantees perfect precision throughout its 8-day power reserve.
The reproduction of the dragon imagined by John Howe is coiled around the lower half of the dial, which is also in white gold. It is entirely covered in Grand Feu enamel in a perfectly uniform shade of midnight blue. The artists at Jaquet Droz have hand-painted John Howe's dragon in infinite shades of grey, giving it a strikingly three-dimensional appearance.
There were two main challenges for the Jaquet Droz workshop to overcome: firstly, creating the illusion that the pearl held in the dragon's claws was luminous, in the spirit intended by John Howe; secondly, making the dragon coil 'over' the minute track and the hour circle, to accentuate the illusion that it is literally coming out of the dial, but without altering any of the indexes, Roman numerals and railway minute tracks. It was truly meticulous work, with the finest strokes created with a single-bristle brush.
The piece will be given to the collector along with the original painting acquired from John Howe. Jaquet Droz intends to undertake more collaborations of this kind in future, where a work of art (painting, sculpture, engraving, etc.) created for a customer will be paired with a unique matching work of art reproduced on a watch.
