Jaquet Droz Dragon Automaton Sapphire - Lapis Lazuli

Two years ago, Jaquet Droz unveiled one of the most complex automatons ever produced for a wristwatch: the Dragon Automaton, featuring sixteen moving parts and nine animations. Now, Jaquet Droz has gone further still in terms of sophistication and difficulty by adding a sapphire crystal case and a lapis lazuli dial – a stunning feat for what is well and truly a unique piece.

When the ‘John Howe’ Dragon Automaton was unveiled, some saw it as the last word on the subject: the piece seemed to mark the final destination of a long creative journey with the famed artistic designer for Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings and Hobbit trilogies. Now it’s clear that it was in fact a starting-point. Over the next two years, in the seclusion of its Ateliers d’Art in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Jaquet Droz strove to draw Art and Watchmaking still closer together, revisiting the canons of both to produce a new blend of creative disruption.

The symbol of the Dragon goes back thousands of years, spanning every era, continent, and culture; Jaquet Droz has taken it up here, reproducing the sacred beast in grey gold. Each part of the dragon’s body has been handsculpted and then polished and individually engraved to detail scales, claws, and more.

From the depths of the earth, Jaquet Droz has also wrested a dial made from a single piece of lapis lazuli. While this is not an especially rare stone, a piece this large, this uniform and devoid of cracks is – even more so in a sliver less than one millimetre thick that has been worked on without it being chipped or broken. The longstanding experience of Jaquet Droz Artisans in mineral arts thus offers the Dragon a backdrop of a rare intensity – a stage on which it performs for the best part of fifteen seconds.

The audacity of this Dragon Automaton piece resides in the way Jaquet Droz has encapsulated this knowhow and the ancient symbols it depicts in a highly contemporary showcase made entirely of sapphire crystal – a glass box like no other, with a diameter of 45 millimetres. The sapphire crystal case is fully watertight, despite a total absence of screws or inserts. None are needed: Jaquet Droz has used a process of which it alone holds the secret to fit the case together to within the nearest micron.

While the case design required extensive research, a whole new set of technical specifications were needed, too: the original Dragon Automaton was designed to be fully enclosed in a gold case. New tolerances, new finishes, and most importantly new anchor points for the movement had to be devised to suit its new sapphire crystal housing. Unprecedented components were invented and a large number of prototypes developed to ensure nothing would trouble the sheer transparency of the crystal.

To highlight the contemporary nature of the piece, Jaquet Droz suggests mounting its lapis lazuli Dragon Automaton on a blue rubber strap matching the lapis lazuli on the dial. That is just a suggestion, though: ultimately, it will be up to the future owner of the unique piece to decide on its externals and engravings.

Technical specifications

Jaquet Droz Dragon Automaton Sapphire - Lapis Lazuli 

Reference: J0327370021

Unique piece

Case

• Material: Sapphire case
• Diameter: 45 mm
• Thickness: 18 mm
• Customization, identified as a unique piece by an engraving on the movement bridges
• Water-resistant to 30 meters (3 bar)

Dial and hands

• Openworked dial in lapis-lazuli.
• Hand-engraved dragon appliques in 18-karat white gold.
• Hand-painted steel eye and tongue
• Labradorite ball
• 18-karat white gold hands

Movement

• Jaquet Droz 6150
• Self-winding mechanical movement
• Silicon balance spring and pallet horns, flat bridges
• 18-karat white gold oscillating weight with JH signature and black treatment.
• Frequency: 21'600 vph (3 Hz)
• 78 rubies for the automaton movement + 29 rubies for the hour and minute movement
• Power reserve of 38 hours

Functions/Indications

• Off-centered hours and minutes
• Mechanical automaton with 9 different animated elements of the dragon:
• the crest moves, the mouth opens, the tongue comes out, the eye opens and closes, the dorsal section and tail undulate, the dragon's foot moves up and down towards the ball, the ball spins on itself.
• The animation cycle lasts 10 to 15 seconds.

Strap and buckle

• Blue rubber strap
• 18-karat white gold folding clasp

MSRP: CHF 490'000 (incl. taxes)

For more information, please visit jaquet-droz.com