Jaquet Droz: Taming the jungle

Tropical Bird Repeater

CASE : hand-engraved 18K red gold, solid caseback with engraved individual number, non water-resistant

DIAMETER : 47mm

MOVEMENT : mechanical manual-winding (Caliber Jaquet Droz RMA89, 60h power reserve)

FUNCTIONS : hours, minutes, minute repeater, automaton animation of the peacock, tropical leaves, hummingbird,
toucan, dragonflies and waterfall

DIAL : engraved handpainted white mother-of-pearl, black onyx center, applied hand-engraved and painted 18K red gold decor

STRAP : rolled-edge dark green alligator leather, red gold folding clasp

LIMITED SERIES OF 8

Some might be tempted to see in this black moon floating above tropical birds a reinterpretation of the black monolith featured in Kubrick’s Space Odyssey, so striking is the depiction of various symbols of time and nature, immersed in an artistic mother-of-pearl ambience. The Tropical Bird Repeater indeed represents far more than just a watch, harmoniously blending artistic crafts with the automaton art – both of which are firmly ingrained in the Jaquet Droz DNA. As you will be able to admire on the author’s Instagram account, the wings of the hand-sculpted and engraved hummingbird beat 40 times a second as it flits towards the shrub (a world first in the watch industry), from which dragonflies with luminescent wings flutter above the cascading waterfall. The show continues in a dynamic way on the crown side, where the toucan appears and the peacock spreads its tail. The minute repeater setting this scene to music might almost go unnoticed amid the superlative artistic and technical features blossoming on this mechanical work of art. View full details on worldtempus.com

Brice Lechevalier is editor-in-chief of GMT and Skippers, which he co-founded in 2000 and 2001 respectively. He has also been CEO of WorldTempus since it joined the GMT Publishing stable, of which he is director and joint shareholder. In 2012 he created the Geneva Watch Tour, and he has been an advisor to the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève since 2011. Also closely involved in sailing, he has published the magazine of the Société Nautique de Genève since 2003, and was one of the founders of the SUI Sailing Awards in 2009 and the Concours d’Elégance for motor boats at the Cannes Yachting Festival in 2015.

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