Jaquet Droz
Jaquet Droz’s Mission to Astonish
Jaquet Droz
Jaquet Droz’s Mission to Astonish
Turning Tradition into Art
In the 18th century, watchmakers in the Jaquet Droz family pioneered delicate ornamental techniques that took their clocks to a new artistic level. Masters in grand feu enamel, they became known for working with techniques to embellish their pieces, including miniature painting, paillons enamel, and highly detailed miniature sculptures.
These became Jaquet Droz’s signature techniques, which Pierre Jaquet Droz applied to his grandfather clocks to distinguish them from anything else on the market. Along with his elaborate automaton movements, Pierre Jaquet Droz became known throughout Europe and the rest of the world for his sophisticated clocks, even becoming the first clockmaking brand to be imported into the Forbidden City in China for Emperor Qianlong, who was fascinated by mechanical watches and automatons, in the mid-1700s.
Jaquet Droz has, in its archives, a number of clocks, pocket watches, and antique bird cages that date from the 18th and 19th centuries — the brand has, after all, a rich history it can delve into for inspiration. During our visit to their atelier, a historian and clock restorer named Gregoire* kindly showed us a prized possession: a bird cage from 1775 with a music box movement, complete with two taxidermy birds. With the turn of a key, the birds came alive, moving and flapping their wings to the tune of chimes.
An incredibly elaborate movement, this piece is only one of many in the brand’s archives and shows how Jaquet Droz has been making sophisticated movements involving birds and music for a long time, which explains their stunning Automaton collection. Today, Jaquet Droz continues to find inspiration in these traditional techniques with a team of enamellers and engravers working together in their atelier to bring forward stunning pieces of art.
The Atelier
For such traditional work, the seven in-house craftsmen and -women behind Jaquet Droz’s breathtaking pieces are younger than expected — which is, in light of their amazing work, ultimately a good thing. There’s a youthful and dynamic energy to the atelier, which is reflected in the playfulness and vibrancy in Jaquet Droz’s pieces. And this type of work can really only be born when people work together in close quarters: “We all collaborate closely on all of these pieces. We can tell someone else if a certain part of the design doesn’t work, or how we can adjust it, and we can do that all day because of the size of our team, and we really understand each other’s work,” said Heidi.
At the time of our visit, four of the seven artisans were working on different parts of the Tropical Bird Repeater, one of Jaquet Droz’s outstanding 2018 novelties. One artisan was working on the engraving and detail work on the hummingbird’s feathers, another was painting the peacock feathers, and two were each engraving an 18-Karat red gold case with detailed sketches of the design next to their workstations. One of the engravers told me: “We’re all engraving the same design, but we all do it our own way. We each have our own tools that we sometimes make ourselves, and we interpret the same design differently. It’s very minute details — I would be able to recognize who worked on what case just by looking at the engraving.”
*Editorial note:
Full names have been omitted per Jaquet Droz policy and for the employees’ privacy.