If you have enough funds at your disposal your horological options end up including having something made just for you, today’s post is about one of those options.

Meet the pièce unique Parrot Repeater Automaton Pocket Watch from one of the very few modern brands still associated with automatons, Jaquet Droz. It may be 1/1, but it has a reference number – Reference J0805330011.

Jaquet Droz have had wristwatches (of various limitations) with birds and minute repeaters, but it is also important to note that at Baselworld 2018 Jaquet Droz showed a Parrot Repeater Pocket Watch which was created to mark 280 years of the brand. You can compare that piece with this 2024 pocket watch, in the video below.

A 56mm 18k ed gold case provides the frame for layers of parrots. It is hand-set and hand-painted on both the dial side and the back, and features hand-engraving and a patented (two) mechanism in an opening hidden within the bow. The case back features a parrot painted on enamel, with with paillonné-enamelling in gold leaf. It is set with 344 emeralds (2.61 carats), 16 rubies (0.05 carats), 281 blue sapphires (1.15 carats), 338 yellow sapphires (0.95 carats), 108 pink sapphires (0.45 carats), 7 marquise-cut pink sapphires (6.69 carats), and 4 marquise-cut blue sapphires (4.92 carats).

The curved cover is skeletonised to depict a jungle, with ribbed Grand Feu enamel used for the leaves at 12 o’clock, and rubies, sapphires, and emeralds set in gold.

Opening it up, you get the key scene, with a mix of adult and chick Ara Macaws. This is where the automaton kicks into gear, with eight animations – the waterfall flows, all four parrots move, and the egg hatches. It is activated by a single bolt mechanism at 9 o’clock.

The birds are a mix of engraving, Grand Feu enamel, and micro painting. The white mother-of-pearl dial is hand-engraved and hand painted, and there is also hand-painted applied decoration in 18k red gold. The hands on the off-set time dial are also 18k red gold.

Beating inside it is the manually-wound RMA88 minute repeater coupled with an automaton boasting eight animations, activated by a single bolt mechanism at 9 o’clock. It beats at 18,000 VPH and has a power reserve of 48 hours.

The Jaquet Droz Pocket Watch Automaton – Parrot Repeater comes on an 18k red gold chain with disc set with 142 emeralds (total of 0.93 ct) and in case anyone enquies, “pièce unique” is engraved on the case-back.

Another ‘if you’re wondering’ are the gemstone stats –

486 emeralds (3.54 cts)
281 blue sapphires (1.15 cts)
338 yellow sapphires (0.95 ct)
108 pink sapphires (0.45 ct)
16 rubies (0.05 ct)
7 marquise-cut pink sapphires (6.69 cts)
4 marquise-cut blue sapphires (4.92 cts)”
Total: 1240 set stones
Total carat weight: Emerald 3.54 cts – Sapphire 14.16 cts – Ruby 0.05 ct

When your discretionary spending (aka watch) budget is sufficient to allow you to consider timepieces above a certain amount (and yes, it can be five and not six, figures for some micro brands/ independents), commissioning pieces from either independent watchmakers or brands is an option worth serious consideration. In doing so, making choices based on the strengths of watchmakers and watch brands, like the choice of Jaquet Droz to create this automaton pocket watch, can give you a horological work of art as well as something with personal meaning.

It took a year to complete the design aspects of this piece – three gem-setters, three engravers, two enamellers, an expert in miniature painting, and an escapement fitter responsible for adjusting the case opening mechanism.

[Photo credit: Jaquet Droz]

Categories: Jaquet Droz, Limited Editions, Minute Repeaters, pocket watches