Jaquet Droz / Petite Heure Minute Red Gold – Hummingbird

A renaissance of floral art in Haute Horlogerie

The Petite Heure Minute Red Gold – Hummingbird is a unique expression of how Jaquet Droz links its Enlightenment-era origins with contemporary Haute Horlogerie. Commissioned by a private collector, it revives the brand’s historic fascination with naturalistic scenes once depicted on pocket watches, snuff boxes and automata preserved in the Atelier’s museum in La Chaux-de-Fonds.

Here, a pair of hummingbirds gather nectar from hibiscus flowers on a dial entirely crafted in 18-karat gold. The composition reconnects Jaquet Droz with the herbariums and botanical studies that inspired Enlightenment scholars, translating that culture of plant and bird life into a contemporary work of miniature painting and Grand Feu enamel.

Key Highlights

• Unique Petite Heure Minute Red Gold – Hummingbird created on commission for a private collector.
• Naturalistic scene with two hummingbirds and hibiscus flowers, hand-engraved and miniature-painted on an 18-karat gold dial.
• Grand Feu enamel colours with complex gradients, requiring multiple high-risk firings.
• 39 mm 18-karat red gold case housing a tourbillon with sapphire cage and bridge at 12 o’clock.
• Silicon escapement, seven-day power reserve and an engraved, painted 18-karat gold oscillating weight.

The dial as a living tableau

The world of Jaquet Droz has long been populated by birds, painted or animated within mechanical objects created since 1738. On this Petite Heure Minute, the theme returns with calm precision: two hummingbirds rise above hibiscus blooms, painted so thin—around one tenth of a millimetre—that they can be mistaken for applied elements.

The dial is fully handcrafted, down to details such as pollen grains rendered as gold paillons. Flowers, leaves and birds are first engraved, then hand-painted in enamel. The palette is luminous, with subtle gradations from deep red to yellow in the petals, delicate whites on the wings, and a sky that moves from navy at six o’clock to brightness at noon.

Achieving this depth requires multiple Grand Feu firings, each exposing the dial to the risk that a slight variation in time or temperature could crack or distort the work. The result is a scene that preserves the maison’s historic naturalism while speaking to current collectors who value artisanal dials as much as mechanical content.

Tourbillon at the zenith of the scene

At 12 o’clock, a tourbillon reinforces the watch’s Haute Horlogerie credentials. Its cage and bridge are fashioned from translucent sapphire, creating a sense of levitation above the painted landscape. The tourbillon, patented in 1801 when Jaquet Droz was already a thriving maison, here benefits from modern approaches to chronometry and energy management.

The movement is equipped with a silicon escapement, improving resistance to magnetic fields and environmental variations, and offers a seven-day power reserve. On the reverse, the 18-karat gold oscillating weight is engraved and painted in hummingbird colours, extending the naturalistic narrative to the back of the watch and creating a visual link between the dial and the movement side.

Why it matters

The Petite Heure Minute Red Gold – Hummingbird crystallises the maison’s “Disruptive Legacy” philosophy: a forward-looking technical approach anchored in a documented heritage. By combining Grand Feu enamel, miniature painting, a sapphire tourbillon and a long power reserve, Jaquet Droz shows how historic naturalistic themes can be reinterpreted as contemporary, one-of-a-kind art objects for the wrist.

For collectors in the GCC who value craftsmanship with authentic lineage, this unique piece underlines that true rarity lies not only in low production, but in the depth of savoir-faire invested in every component. It also illustrates how traditional decorative arts and modern horological engineering can coexist within a single, coherent creation.