What you see here is a piece unique (one-of-a-kind) version of the Jaquet Droz The Bird Repeater watch. We felt that showing off this particular hand-engraved and diamond-studded version of the piece was a good way to offer a nice hands-on look at the first actual automaton watch from the brand with a very historical relationship to automatons. Around now, the man, Jaquet Droz, would be celebrating his 275th birthday. During his lifetime he created some incredible early robotic machines such as The Writer (hands-on) that later inspired movies such as Hugo.
We first debuted The Bird Repeater Watch in 2012 when it was officially released by Jaquet Droz. Though, they teased us with a movie about the watch almost a year earlier during its development. While all versions of the watch are limited (in fact the brand will only produce 16 pieces total), this version of the watch is the only one you’ll ever see dressed up like this. Most of The Bird Repeater watches have colorful hand-painted enamel dials showing off the scene with the birds, nest, waterfall and nature. Those are perhaps the most visually stunning, but this version is clearly the most luxurious.
On this gold and diamond version of The Bird Repeater, Jaquet Droz has replaced the painted dial with one that has been hand-engraved in 18k white gold against an 18k white gold case. Additional engravings can be found on the sides and rear of the case as well. Note the liberal use of diamonds on both the dial as well as the case. All of the diamonds are baguette-cut and most of them are used for the time dial. Using invisible settings, baguette-cut diamonds make up the entirety of the watch dial behind blued steel hour and minute hands.
The only bit of color on the dial is seen on the seconds disc. Where is that you ask? Well it is the waterfall of course. Rather than having a traditional seconds hand, a small revolving disc for the waterfall helps create the illusion of moving water. The overall watch is so bright, that the slight yellow color of the diamonds comes out against the white gold dial. Despite a lack of paint and color, the dial does a great job of showing off the character of the automaton birds and nature scenery, though you need to look more closely to appreciate all the detials.
While none of the whimsical high complications expressed inside this watch represent any type of a gain in usefulness to the wearer, which was never the point, naturally. Jaquet Droz Horse Watch Replica is only one manufacturer offering automata in wristwatch type, together with other recent examples such as the Van Cleef & Arpels Ronde Des Papillons and the Ulysse Nardin Hourstriker Pin-Up, but Jaquet Droz goes the extra mile concerning its decorative arts and intricacy of the automata. Just 8 portions of the Jaquet Droz Tropical Bird Repeater watch are being generated, with an asking price of $661,500 each. The Grande Seconde would be to Jaquet Droz what the Lange One would be to A. Lange & Söhne because the brand’s flagship collection and touch look. The name and firm Jaquet Droz were acquired by the Swatch Group in the turn of the millennium, and just two years later, it launched the Grande Seconde, which was inspired by an older Jaquet Droz pocket watch from the 18th century. It’s a very simple but pleasing layout, comprising a subdial that tells the major hour in 12 o’clock along with a larger overlapping subdial at 6 o’clock that shows the running seconds – hence the title Grande Seconde. There are two that come in a black ceramic case and one which comes from a white ceramic instance. Let us talk about the lone white ceramic version first, which is only called the Grande Seconde Ceramic watch. It features a pristine white porcelain case that measures 44mm broad and is 12.23millimeters in height. That tells you that it’s thought to be a men’s view, even though white ceramic watches – especially with golden accents such as this – are often strongly related to women’s watches.
