Jaquet Droz l'Heure Celeste Watch Hands-On

by Ariel Adams (RSS feed)
Jun 16th 2010 at 12:01PM

Jaquet Droz watches are rare enough, but highly limited high-jewelry pieces from the brand are much more rare. I got to get some hands-on treatment with a limited edition of just 8 pieces version of the l'Heure Celeste ("Celestial Hour") watch. The piece is pretty, but strange. In a large for a women's wrist 41mm wide white gold case has a domed sapphire crystal and a glimmering mother-of-pear dial. The watch dial itself is off-centered and pretty easy to read. The rest of the watch is filled with jewel covered "celestial orbs." They come in a few colors, and are covered in 35 yellow sapphires, 154 blue sapphires, 51 pink sapphires, 22 orange sapphires, and 46 tsavorites. Other versions include gold orbs and diamonds. The quirky dial is interesting to me, but I wonder how other people perceive it who don't see super luxury watches all the time.

Inside the watch is an automatic Jaquet Droz caliber 2653 movement with a 22k white gold rotor. Finally, we see some diamonds on the white satin strap buckle - where you'll find 24 diamonds as decoration. A fascinating piece with more than likely an astronomical price.

Ariel Adams publishes the luxury watch review site aBlogtoRead.com.

Gallery: Jaquet Droz l Heure Celeste watch