History of Automaton Watch
Jaquet Droz is one of the world's earliest watch brands,also the first Swiss brand to enter China, its founder Jaquet Droz the influence of his father's generation, watchmaking and precision machinery has a strong interest, in automatic dolls from his perception that all the world's animals and human action, and ultimately can be imitated through the mechanical movement. So he started to make all kinds of "robots" of that era. With his talent and superb craftsmanship, coupled with his mastery of mechanical principles, Jaquet Droz began to add music and automaton dolls as decorations to timepieces, giving rise to an extremely advanced field of the watch industry - automaton watch, in which Jaquet Droz can be said to be the acknowledged originator.
In 1758, with the strong support of a friend who was a governor, Jaquet Droz, his father-in-law, and a young craftsman custom-built a carriage and loaded with six clocks and traveled to Spain. Jaquet Droz presented his creations to the King of Spain and became so famous that the Spanish royal family bought all his clocks. 1759 Jaquet Droz was able to produce even more automata watches and clocks thanks to the great wealth he had acquired from the Spanish royal family. The best work of these are the following three pieces:
The Writer, The Draughtsman, and The Musician, later became known as the "Jaquet Droz Automata".
"The Writer" can write 40 pre-programmed letters, which can be a sentence, a poem, or a lyric, through a complex internal precision mechanism, when the quill pen is dipped in ink, and his eyes are fixed on the pen while he writes, just like a serious student.
"The painter" was able to produce four different pictures, two royal portraits, a dog, and a cupid in a chariot pulled by a butterfly, all of which were pre-set, but were not easy craftsmanship in those days.
"The musician" is a bit like a music box, the doll's fingers are almost as sensitive as a human hand, and can play five different melodies, her eyes can follow the movement of her fingers and rotate, and when she plays, her chest can rise and fall with her breathing, as if it were sung out of her mouth.
Jaquet Droz's creations were not only renowned in Europe but also in the Orient. Between 1774 and 1784, Jaquet Droz exported more than 600 pieces to China, the biggest collector being the Qianlong Emperor. To this day, several pieces by Jaquet Droz are still in the Forbidden City's Watch and Clock Museum in Beijing. The most famous of these is the "Copper and Gilded Writer's Clock". Made by the Jaquet Droz family, the moving part of the clock is capable of writing the eight Chinese characters "八方向化，九土来王" with a brush in its hand.
Top: Contains a circular pavilion in which two men hold a cylinder in their hands in the form of a dance. After starting the dance, the two men turn around and pull away from each other, and the cylinder is displayed as a banner with the words "万寿无疆" written on it.
First layer: there is a bell ringer who strikes the bell bowl and plays music every 3, 6, 9, and 12 o'clock.
The third layer: is the clock dial display and timekeeping part.
The bottom layer: is the writing robot, this is the most wonderful and novel part of the whole clock, the most complicated structure, and the timing part of the machinery is not connected, it is a set of independent mechanical settings, that only need to wind instantly demonstration.
Since its founder, Pierre Jaquet Droz, set up his first watchmaking in La Chaux-de-Fonds in 1738, Jaquet Droz has stood out for its unwavering passion, its constant creativity, and its supreme craftsmanship.
Today's watch dials are characterized by the typical Arabic numeral "8", while the technique of Grand Feu enameling is the ultimate demonstration of the brand's craftsmanship. 2000 was the year when the Jaquet Droz watch company joined the Swatch Group, and since then, it has been committed to perpetuating the craftsmanship of the brand's creator, Pierre Jaquet Droz, and continuing its storied history.
Through the centuries, the functionality of the automata watch has become more and more diversified, and the uniqueness of the automata function has attracted several luxury jewelry brands as well as outstanding independent watchmakers to join in the creation of more and more beautiful automaton watches.
For example
1.Van Cleef & Arpels--new Lady Féerie Or Rose watch
3.Louis Vuitton--Tambour Carpe Diem
4.Jacobandco-Fleurs de Jardin
As a "newcomer" to the watch industry, we are also motivated to learn more about watchmaking design and craftsmanship.Founded in 2021, as the first automata watch brand in China Lucky Harvey is working hard to expand its international influence. We hope that more watch enthusiasts and experts can learn about us, and we will work even harder to refine our research and development technology.
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