The Charming Bird by Jaquet Droz is definitely one of the great timepieces we have seen in 2015. It’s spectacular, playful and what an achievement in terms of technical development and integration since we are talking mechanics, acoustics and craftsmanship at the same time.

But one has to be honest and the Charming Bird is much more than a watch, as it integrates a bird automaton, a feature that we have only be used to see in works of incredible artisans of the late 18th and early 19th century. At the time the notion of the wristwatch didn’t exist yet and this is what Jaquet Droz is proposing today in a limited edition series of 56 pieces; 28 red gold, 28 white gold.

The development behind this project has been really immense and this watch encompasses in a certain way two movements, one for the horology and one for the automaton. Regarding this last one, not only do you have to master the mechanical aspect of the automaton, in this case a little bird swivelling on itself, but also its whistling dimension with a 3 sapphire cylinder and carbon piston system to make it work and sound great on demand!

As you can imagine, this is all very intricate and the next challenge is obviously to make the Charming Bird a reliable timepiece. The end result is just a fantastic achievement and quite logically Jaquet Droz was rewarded the Mechanical Exception prize at this year’s GPHG, a well earned prize for an original and quite daring project.