Jaquet Droz has recently revealed the latest version of its charming Bird Repeater automaton chiming watch. The company is well-known for its exquisite pieces which are not only aesthetically impressive but also quite remarkable mechanical devices.
With regards to its appearance, the watch is designed with Geneva as its theme, the city where Pierre Jaquet-Droz the city’s first clockmaking manufacture in 1784. So naturally, some the city’s landmarks are central to its design and are depicted on the watch’s white mother-of-pearl dial, like the Jet d’Eau fountain and Le Phare des Pâquis lighthouse. Even more remarkable are the two goldfinches, hand-sculpted in gold with brightly colored plumage, overlooking a couple of hatchlings and a soon-to-hatch egg.
Here is where the real magic happens! The Bird Repeater Geneva features a highly intricate and delicate mechanism which creates no fewer than eight animations, which are subtle, but quite spectacular. In the age of robotics you might not think you’d be so impressed with a miniature bird feeding its hatchlings or spreading its wings, but when you consider all of this is done without the use of any electronics, through sheer skill in setting up the highly complex internal mechanism. And speaking of mechanisms, the Jaquet Droz RMA88 automatic winding movement which powers the actual timepiece is just as elaborate and fully visible through the caseback.
Limited to just eight pieces, the Jaquet Droz Bird Repeater Geneva is priced at a staggering $500,000.
[Perpetuelle]
