Jaquet Droz Grande Seconde Skelet-One Ceramic Plasma: Singapore Price And Review

Artisanship meets alchemy.

It is an understatement to say that we were blown away when Jaquet Droz premiered the Grande Seconde Skelet-One back in 2018. Bold, modern and artisanal all at once, the watch provided much needed contemporary zing to the 282-year-old brand which, though lauded for its spectacular decorative dials and poetically constructed wrist automatons, had always seemed to bear the burden of its long and illustrious history.

The Grande Seconde Skelet-One – which incidentally also made it to our top Baselworld favourites that year – was able to switch things up in one fell swoop. Though the watch hails from the Grande Seconde collection, which is pretty much an untouchable icon for Jaquet Droz, it manages to distinguish itself with an identity and spirit that is as up-to-date and unique, as it is respectful to the past.

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The Grande Seconde Skelet-One Ceramic Plasma ups the ante in 2020 with a case that looks intriguingly like DLC-treated steel or titanium, but is actually made of high-tech ceramic finished by state-of-the-art treatment. Forged in an oven heated to incredibly high temperatures, the Grande Seconde Skelet-One Ceramic Plasma’s case is originally white ceramic. However, inside the oven, gases are heated to 20,000°C, which in turn raise the temperature of finished white ceramic to 900°C to lavish the material with a metallic sheen. The result is a classy timepiece that looks cool, sophisticated and young, in spite of its ornate dial and the collection’s rich heritage.

As it was before, the Grande Seconde Skelet-One Ceramic Plasma is anchored by the collection’s figure of ‘8’ dial design, with off-centered time sub-dial and large seconds display, though thoroughly reimagined with stunning skeleton work on Jaquet Droz’s automatic 2663 SQ movement with two barrels that offer 68 hours of power reserve.

The architecture of the stripped down bridges, which are frosted on the dial side, are complemented by a sapphire disc for the seconds counter, and a chapter ring with applied indexes for the hour and minute display. Together with the visible gear train and raised oscillating weight that has been hollowed out, the Grande Seconde Skelet-One Ceramic Plasma presents a gorgeous, multi-layered aesthetic that is voluminous and beautifully transparent all at once.

It has been said that the Grande Seconde Skelet-One was introduced with the aim of presenting customers with a ‘younger’ expression of Jaquet Droz. Fashioned by cutting-edge alchemy, the Grande Seconde Skelet-One Ceramic Plasma is certainly a product of these times.

Case	41.5mm plasma ceramic
Dial	Sapphire dial with 18K white gold base with grey treatment, 18K white gold indexes and hands
Movement	Automatic Jaquet Droz 2663 SQ
Strap	Rolled-edge hand-made grey fabric
Functions	Hours, minutes, seconds
Power reserve	68 hours
Price	S$38,000

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