Following its tradition of exceptional automaton watches, Jaquet Droz unveils the Tropical Bird Repeater. Inspired by a tropical landscape, this timepiece celebrates the beauty of nature, its birds and other creatures. An exotic painting that pushes the boundaries ever further in the art of wonder, each copy of this stunning watch is limited to 8 unique pieces, the brand’s tutelary number. The exuberance of the dial perfectly matches the alligator-leather strap, available in green or black, as well as the hours and minutes dial in onyx and mother-of-pearl.
The Tropical Bird Repeater watch – the only one of its kind in the world – brings together all the watchmaking and decorative expertise of the brand known by its two stars. Automatons, along with the Ateliers d’Art, represent two of the eight codes of the La Chaux-de-Fonds manufacture, enhanced here by hand by engravers and miniaturist painters These codes are indispensable to the creation of this scene with its flamboyant colors that emerge like a lush oasis on a mother-of-pearl dial, itself enclosed in a gold case adorned on the sides of its lugs and on the middle band with an animal motif hand-engraved by the brand’s craftsmen.
A true source of life, the waterfall offers serenity to the blooming tropical flora and fauna. At the heart of this garden of Eden, its water flows eternally in perfect realism. In the center, a hummingbird hand-carved and hand-engraved by the Maison’s artists moves towards a shrub of bright orange birds of paradise. A one-of-a-kind animation in watchmaking history, its wings beat up to forty times a second, adding incredible realism to the scene. To the right, a peacock with intense blue feathers opens and closes its tail, while a toucan emerges from the palm leaves at 3 o’clock to open its beak. The dancing flight of three elegant dragonflies, located at 9 o'clock, adds to the magic by day or by night as their tiny SuperLuminova®-coated wings glow in the dark…
Alongside this prowess comes a grand horological complication, the minute repeater, which enables the marking on demand of the hours, quarter hours and minutes via the vibration of cathedral gongs struck by hammers inside the case. A push-piece activates this complex mechanism, which to this day remains the privilege of a handful of brands and collectors who will surely appreciate the innovations of the new Jaquet Droz RMA89 movement. The latter is equipped with a virtually silent wheel regulator, as the regulation of the minute repeater’s speed is operated by the friction between small outer spring blades. New rack springs, an extended pause between the quarter hours and minutes, and the striking of the quarter hours by a major third are also part of the complication’s innovations. The power reserve has been increased to 60 hours with an oscillating frequency of 3 Hz.