Swiss luxury watch maker Jaquet Droz unveils Bird Repeater Geneva, a remarkable automaton watch that honours the city of Geneva, where Pierre Jaquet-Droz opened his third workshop in 1784 to produce timepieces featuring grand complications.
For this new edition, Jaquet Droz has brought together the sum of the talents that make up its Ateliers d’Art to stage a further celebration. Pastoral and urban converge to form the background décor of The Bird Repeater Geneva, uniting all the symbols of the Swiss city on a white mother-of-pearl dial. Thus have the engravers, painters and enamelers achieved the feat of reproducing, in miniature, Lake Geneva, its famous Jet d’Eau fountain and lighthouse – Le Phare des Pâquis – as well as the silhouette of the Salève, the pre-Alpine peak considered the city’s “balcony.”
At the center of the dial, pair of elegant goldfinches has nested right in the heart of Île Rousseau, the island paradise for birds located precisely at the entrance to the lake. These creatures, their plumage as brightly colored as a Fauvist canvas, hand-sculpted in gold, are accompanied by their two young, and the group is gathered around an egg in the middle of the nest. The meticulously rendered details, the vivacity of the colors, the attention paid as much to the eyes as to each wisp of straw, is a testament to the illustrative talent of the La Chaux-de-Fonds artisans.
And, as always with Jaquet Droz, beauty and mechanical genius go hand in hand. In keeping with previous editions, The Bird Repeater Geneva boasts 8 animations, minuscule yet spectacular – the birds feeding their fledglings, the spreading wings, the flowing water, the hatching egg – and all paying genuine tribute to the renowned humanoid automata created by Pierre Jaquet-Droz and his son in the 18th century.
The animated tableau contrasts with the great simplicity of the hours and minutes dial, off-centered at 12 o’clock and produced from a disc of black onyx on which two red gold lancine hands make their circular journey, echoing the light diffused by the case, also in red gold and 47 millimeters in diameter. Equipped with a Jaquet Droz RMA88 automatic winding movement and enjoying a 48-hour power reserve, The Bird Repeater Geneva models number just eight in total.
Technical details
Model: Bird Repeater Geneva
Numerus Clausus 8
Reference J031033204
Movement
Jaquet Droz RMA88, minute repeater hand-winding mechanical movement, single barrel
Jewelling: 69 jewels
Power Reserve: 48 hours
Frequency: 18,000 v.p.h
Indications
Off-centered hours and minutes
Case
18-carat red gold case
Diameter 47 mm
Height 18.70 mm
Individual limited serial number engraved on the case-back
Water resistance: Nil
Dial
18-carat red gold dial
Hand-engraved and hand-painted gold dial, black onyx sub-dial
Hand-engraved and hand-painted birds
HANDS: 18-carat red gold
Strap
Rolled-edge hand-made black alligator leather
Buckle: 18-carat red gold folding clasp
