Hands-On: The Jaquet Droz Grande Seconde Moon Onyx
When you think of Jaquet Droz, your mind most likely goes toward the ultra-traditional. I’m talking automatons, detailed enamel painting, and old-school gold filigree work. But that’s not everything the brand is about. The Grande Seconde Moon Onyx is proof of this, taking one of the brand’s familiar silhouettes, but rendering it in a very modern way with the use of a stainless steel case and a clean onyx dial.
The dial has multiple levels and the chapter rings cast subtle shadows on the onyx ground.
The Grande Seconde family is one of the key pillars of Jaquet Droz’s contemporary collection. There are loads of different versions of the watch, all united by the namesake large sub-seconds register. Sometimes this register is directly below the hours/minutes dial, forming a sort of “8” pattern, and other times it’s off-center or even integrated into a tourbillon. Here, you’ve got the most traditional configuration, though the seconds register also contains a date complication and a moonphase complication, all in that same, oversized circle in the lower portion of the dial.
The moonphase indicator is accurate to one day every 122 years and 46 days.
The Grande Seconde Moon Onyx starts with a 43mm stainless steel case that has a slim, slightly domed bezel that gives the dial a lot of room to breathe and make its statement. I’d say it wears slightly on the small side for a 43mm watch, with the case tapering a bit to the wrist, but it’s still a large watch and the 13.23mm thickness doesn’t help. The dial itself looks rather simple at first glance, but there are a lot of layers at play here. The main dial sits as the base of sorts, with the two metal chapter rings floating above, casting subtle shadows below. I really enjoyed this effect and I think it adds a ton to the visual interest of this watch overall.
The moon disc is also onyx, so it matches the rest of the dial perfectly. At certain angles, it’s hard to see where the various parts of the dial fit together – they instead just look like one expansive black surface. Again, the effect is really eye-catching. On the moon disc sits a detailed moon made of 22k white gold and a few stars made of 18k white gold. The stars are Jaquet Droz’s …read more
