Petite Heure Minute The Loving Butterfly
A loving butterfly from Jaquet Droz to Only Watch 2013
For the 5th edition of Only Watch, Jaquet Droz creates The Loving Butterfly, a timekeeper concentrating its savoir-faire in the field of crafts together with the brand’s poetry.
By René Giroud
For several years now, Jaquet Droz has been using its timekeepers to explore its multi-layered history consisting of automatons’ universe, arts, poetry and painting. In 2013, the partner of Only Watch renews its participation to the charity auction by presenting an extraordinary watch exuding each parcel of its universe while giving a poetic touch to the auction bid.
Slender innocence of a loving butterfly
Part of the Petite Heure Minute collection, this The Loving Butterfly is drawing, for the animation of its dial, from the historical designs of the brand. Indeed, this cherub in a carriage pulled by a butterfly was part of one of the automata imagined by Pierre Jaquet-Droz.
This extremely poetic motif is the perfect embodiment of concepts such as innocence and purity as well the need for liberty represented by the cherub and the butterfly, respectively. Themes dear to the famous Monaco charity auction and an illustration fully impregnated with the oniric Jaquet Droz world.
Technically, the decorative craftsmanship of La Chaux-de-Fond is seen through the methods employed to design this image. On the background, the Monaco palace has been painted in matching shades giving the sight a touch of realism. The gold butterfly has been worked like a bas-relief; first, it was engraved on a block of gold, then, the wings’ scales were made openworked so that they could be individually coloured, giving off deep and eternal shades before finally being applied on the Grand Feu enamel dial.
Jaquet Droz's technicality at the service of the cause
The butterfly’s legs are made of suspended gold wires and thus stir at the slightest wrist movements. These methods give the whole watch an air of exclusive deepness.
Water-resistant to 30 metres, this timekeeper displays hours and minutes in an off center timer positioned at 12 o’clock. In the 43 mm diameter yellow gold case, there is a self-winding mechanical movement including an oscillating mass made visible. On its back, commemorating the event, is the “Only Watch” inscription.
