Jaquet Droz Brings A Dragon To Life On Your Wrist

Three creative voices come together to craft a unique timepiece based on a collector’s brief. An original artwork—be it a painting, sculpture, or engraving—is created by the artist and then miniaturised by Jaquet Droz’s Ateliers d’Art to become part of a bespoke watch. The result is two linked masterpieces: the original and its horological twin. This collaborative approach allows the collector to wear the soul of their artwork. The latest example is a 43-mm white gold tourbillon watch featuring a hand-painted dial inspired by a dragon artwork by Lord of the Rings artistic director John Howe. Both the painting and the watch were acquired by the same collector.

The Grande Seconde Tourbillon was chosen as the canvas, with its signature “8” layout—hours and minutes at 6 o'clock, and a tourbillon at 12. The dragon coils across the lower half of the dial, which is crafted in white gold and coated with midnight blue Grand Feu enamel. Painted in nuanced shades of grey, the dragon appears strikingly lifelike. The artisans faced two challenges: giving the pearl in the dragon’s claws a luminous effect, and making the creature appear to emerge over the minute track—without disrupting the Roman numerals or indexes. Achieved with painstaking precision, each detail was rendered with a single-bristle brush.