Jaquet Droz’s ‘Sports Watch’ is a high-end, heavy-duty chrono

Watchmaker Jaquet Droz makes luxury watches that cost more than some San Francisco apartments. Now, however, they’ve decided to go “downmarket” with their Sports Watch chronograph, a handmade watch that is designed for both work and play.

The watch is a standard chronograph with big date, a complication that displays the date as two digits instead of on a rotating dial. The resulting piece looks like a haute couture Speedmaster and should cost around $15,000, an acceptable sum for a manufacture watch with Droz’s provenance given that other Droz watches can run into the $100,000s, a price that might be less appetizing to the illiquid entrepreneur.

More from the release:

True to watchmaking tradition, the hour markers are 18-carat white gold appliques. Wide Roman numerals indicate 3, 6, 9 and 12 o’clock. At 12 o’clock, Jaquet Droz features a big date, a complication traditional in fine watchmaking but rarely associated with a chronograph. Although more complex to produce than a simple date aperture, the large date offers superior readability. Again, to provide optimal readability, the latest versions of the SW Chrono feature a 45 mm dial, and a rail track over the motion work in fine watchmaking tradition.

The strap is made of “rolled-edge hand-made dark-blue fabric,” a unique addition to the luxury watch world that has thus far used rubber or metal for bands. It is water-resistant to 50 meters, if you think you’re going to get wet with this thing on your wrist, and it should be on sale before the end of the year.

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