Изделия, в которых главное место занимает змея, встречаются крайне редко. Марка Jaquet Droz не создавала ничего подобного в течение 12 лет. В этом году мастерская представляет две уникальные интерпретации на тему китайского гороскопа: с перламутровым циферблатом и купритовой хризоколлой. И впервые на часах нет стрелок. Художественное мастерство в новых творениях доведено до беспрецедентного уровня. Извивающееся тело змеи из чистого золота покрыто эмалью с градиентом цветов согласно узору, созданному Джоном Хау, другом Часового дома и концептуальным дизайнером кинотрилогии «Властелин колец».
Некоторые животные обращают на себя внимание особым телосложением. Другим достается больше гибкости. Такова змея ― символ 2025-го года по китайскому гороскопу. Марка Jaquet Droz не могла упустить такую творческую возможность и создала свои первые часы без стрелок: модель Ophidian Hour (время Змеи). Это уникальные часы из красного золота диаметром 41 мм, в которых часы и минуты отображаются с помощью медленно вращающихся дисков. Голова змеи указывает часы, а хвост ― минуты.
Between these two extremities, Jaquet Droz has imbued its creation with symbolism and artisanal excellence. The animal’s long body is reminiscent of the calligraphy for the Chinese character for happiness. It is sculpted from five blocks of solid white gold that are assembled with perfect continuity. The snake has an impressive presence on the dial: At its highest point, it measures 4 mm, literally coming to rest on the sapphire glass, almost within touching distance.
But this is not where the real achievement lies. The suppleness of a snake’s body offers a creative simplicity that belies the difficulty of this form which is entirely created from smooth curves. It offers so many surfaces that it was almost impossible to add enamel work, since pre-fired enamel is a powder that, in theory, cannot be applied nor held on the entire circular surface of the animal at the same time. Yet Jaquet Droz craftsmen managed it.
And they even went further. Because in addition to enamel, which follows the slightest undulation in the snake’s body, it offers perfectly graduated colouring, extending from light to dark green, alternating according to the model with an intense blood red. The unusually precise enamel is applied in shallow cavities in the gold form. It is fired and then polished, and the white gold surfaces are also hand polished. This creates a «Ruyi» motif, interpreted by John Howe, which traditionally attracts protection and good fortune.
The two interpretations place the snake back in the heart of its natural habitat, in line with the historic naturalistic approach that has inspired Jaquet Droz since the 18th Century. The first, luxurious dial is mother-of-pearl. It is delicately engraved with a bamboo motif, then filled with a graduated miniature painting.
The second dial is made from a mineral – another long-standing artisanal tradition from Jaquet Droz. But for this second unique piece, the choice of rock is also something special: the Sonora Sunrise. This is also a first: It has never been used by Jaquet Droz before. The atelier has chosen it for the presence of two very complementary colours within the same fragment; a soft green with black inclusions and a blood red flecked with dark marbling. Finding such a piece with such pronounced colours on such a small surface is no less difficult than cutting it into a dial only 0.8 mm thick.
Each one of these two unique pieces is worn on a green rubber strap. The sapphire back reveals a glimpse of the red gold oscillating weight that features a mother-of-pearl or Sonora Sunrise insert decorated with a Ruyi motif, driving a movement with a silicon balance spring with 68 hour power reserve.
