Jaquet Droz,”Petite Heure Minute” for Only Watch Jaquet Droz, “Petite Heure Minute Monaco” Numerus Clausus 1/1, movement No. 001050, Ref. J005033214. Very fine and unique, water-resistant, selfwinding, 18K red gold wristwatch with enamel dial and an 18K red gold Jaquet Droz buckle. Accompanied by fitted box and Certificate.
Dial: Ivory “Grand Feu” enamel, hand-painted depicting the New Harbor and the Rock of Monaco, off-center hours and minutes with radial Roman numerals, outer minute track. Red gold alpha hands.
Movement: Cal. 2653.4, rhodium-plated, Côtes de Genève decoration, 28 jewels, straight line lever escapement, double barrel, monometallic balance adjusted to five positions, shock absorber, self-compensating flat balance spring, 22K white gold rotor with sunray decoration. Dial, case and movement signed. Diameter 43 mm.
Estimated Price: 30,000 – 40,000
Realised Price: 32,000
About Jaquet Droz
Pierre Jaquet-Droz (1721–1790) was a Swiss-born watchmaker of the late eighteenth century. He lived in Paris, London, and Geneva, where he designed and built animated dolls, or automata, to help his firm sell watches and mechanical birds. Constructed between 1768 and 1774 by Pierre Jaquet-Droz, his son Henri-Louis (1752-1791), and Jean-Frederic Leschot (1746-1824) were The Writer (made of 6000 pieces), The Musician (2500 pieces) and The Draughtsman (2000 pieces). His astonishing mechanisms fascinated the world’s most important people: the kings and emperors of Europe, China, India and Japan. Some consider these devices to be the oldest examples of the computer. The Writer has an input device to set tabs that form a programmable memory, 40 cams that represents the read only program, and a quill pen for output. The work of Pierre Jaquet-Droz predates that of Charles Babbage by decades.