the Grande Heure Minute in white and black enamel which had their debut in Basel 2006.

Perhaps there is no such thing as an inexpensive Jaquet Droz watch but on a recent trip to my AD these two watches stood out in the field of other J*D contenders sitting in the display case.

First released in 2006 these were the "second generation" Grande Heure Minute models.  The original Grande Heure Minute with the grey slate dial released in 2005 sold out pretty quickly at the manufacture level because of speculation that it would be the only watch made in stainless steel within the entire Jaquet Droz collection.  I think more than a few flippers got burned and as a result  these new releases in 2006 have gone by unnoticed and still quite available to the general Jaquet Droz enthusiast.

The basic movement remained the same.  Each Grande Heure Minute model  is equipped with the Calibre 1169, a mechanically self-winding double barrel movement, 32 jewels, beating at 28,800 v.p.h and a 68 hour power reserve.  The case diameter also remained constant at 43mm.

 

 

 

However the grey slate dial and rehaut ring was replaced by a white enamel and a two toned black enamel dial.  The theme of mixing Roman and Arabic numerals ( a signature mark of historic Jaquet Droz timepieces) was also highlighted in the second generation.  I didn't think I would like the prominent role the Roman numeral played on the dial but I was wrong.  Also there was one significant change from the prototypes shown at the Basel Fair and the final production pieces...The subdials are different!  J*D decided to leave out the words "Manufacture en Suisse" on the subdials (thank you because now the dials are much cleaner) and the seconds track was also moved.

I'll let the pictures do the talking.

Here is the Basel Prototype CAD image of the white enamel dial

 

Here is the final production Grande Heure Minute white enamel version:

 

 

Can I just say I love the large flame blued lancine hands against the white enamel background!

 

 Here is the Basel Prototype CAD image of the black enamel dial.

 

Here is the final production Grande Heure Minute in black enamel.  The white enamel subdial is sunken which adds another dimension to the dial design as well.

What do you all think of the changes?

Enjoy,

Mike

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