On hindsight, watch collectors should have seen this coming.

In 2010, Swiss luxury watchmaker Jaquet Droz presented a bird-themed timepiece with exquisite miniature painting. The watches that followed in consecutive years – one with a sculpture dial depicting a feathered family gathered around a nest in 2011, and last year’s Bird Minute Repeater, which features the said complication – were in fact precursors to the horological climax that is this year’s The Charming Bird.

Essentially a watch with a miniature automaton, The Charming Bird crowns Jaquet Droz’s 275^th anniversary celebrations by paying tribute to its founder’s technical ingenuity. Just as Jaquet Droz’s mechanical robots enthralled his customers in the 18^th century (among the most famous of which are clocks with lifelike automated ‘singing’ birds), The Charming Bird fascinates today’s collectors with its modern, miniaturised version that is able to whistle a birdsong on demand.

The watch’s time-telling function, displayed via a sub-dial at 12 o’clock, operates independently from the singing bird automaton. The rest of the space is taken up by the automaton’s pneumatic system.

When activated, the miniature bird turns and flaps its wings about, while tiny air pumps draw surrounding air and channels it into a piston-driven device to mimic the bird chirping. Interestingly, the watch’s creators share that this innovation, while inspired by Droz’s 18^th century works, actually has more in common in its construction with modern automobile engines than the brand’s old automatons.

 

Case: 18k white gold

Movement: Manual-winding Jaquet Droz 610

Functions: Hours, minutes, singing bird automaton

Power Reserve: 40 hours

 

www.jaquet-droz.com