Blinded By Love – Jaquet Droz Loving Butterfly Automaton
At the time when Pierre Jaquet-Droz was born in 1721, the golden age for automatons just started. The engineer Jacques de Vaucanson enchanted the people with his ‘mechanical duck’, made of more than 400 moving components and able to move its wings, chatter and sip water. The young watchmaker Pierre Jaquet-Droz was fascinated by this ingenious mechanical robot and it encouraged him at the same time. So, additional to pendulum- and pocket-watches he also started to create music playing automatons and singing birds. One of the first automaton-watches (a pendulum watch) was ‘The Shepherd’ that Jaquet-Droz brought to Spain in 1758. Together with his son Henri-Louis Jaquet-Droz and their mechanist Jean-Frédéric Lechot, in 1774 they managed to build the probably most well-known automatons of all times: The Writer, the Draftsman and the Musician.
Jaquet Droz’s Loving Butterfly Automaton
These automatons were also named androids, as they looked like humans and executed real functions. In a way they are the precursors of the modern computers – they were programmed for certain operations and had a memory system, all pure mechanical of course. The Draftsman was able to draw a sketch of a cherub sitting in a chariot being pulled by a butterfly. Just over 240 years later, the Maison Jaquet Droz adopts this sketch onto the Loving Butterfly Automaton and captures the cherub and his chauffeur, the butterfly, on the dial of a wristwatch. But what’s this all about?
Forty tiny elements expose the mythical drama on the dial
Henri-Louis Jaquet-Droz was very much interested in arts and literature. He was inspired by the tale of ‘Cupid and Psyche’, a romantic drama from Greek mythology. The cherub incarnates ‘Cupid’, the love god. The princess ‘Psyche’ is often portrayed with butterfly wings and the deification of the human mind or spirit. It was probably Henri-Louis’ very personal interpretation of the romantic tale – the mind is controlled by love.
The case and all elements on the dial are made of red gold
Back then, automatons caused a lot of attention, and they still do today – because the miniature-automaton can be admired on the dial of a wristwatch. Jaquet Droz chose the collection ‘Petite Heure Minute’ for this, as it offers enough stage on the dial due to the small time display at 12 o’clock. The love tandem gets moving by a pusher that is integrated into the crown. The tiny butterfly wings flap 300 times in two minutes. At the same time, the cherub’s chariot wheel starts turning. Three barrels deliver the necessary powertrain that also has to be hand-wound from the crown.
Jaquet Droz Loving Butterfly Automaton
The forest that surrounds the couple reminds of the landscape around the region of La Chaux-de-Fonds, the birthplace of the founding father. The dial alone is decorated by forty elements that have been hand engraved and assembled. Arms, legs, faces, wings and trees are made of red gold. The oscillating weight that appears through the open sapphire glass on the back is shaped like the cherub’s chariot wheel and made of 22-carat red gold. The dial is made of black onyx in an 18-karat red gold case. The balance spring and the pallet horn of calibre 2653 AT1 are made of silicon.
The oscillating weight is shaped like the cherub’s chariot wheel
For most romantics, it will remain a mythical love story – because only 28 pieces of the Loving Butterfly Automaton in this version will adorn the wrists of some very few automaton enthusiasts.
An exciting and inspiring week comes to an end. We saw double moons, a candy-shop full of colourful timepieces and a Lamborghini for the wrist. We found out, that you can practice sustainable watchmaking with recycled PET bottles, that a power reserve of 65 days (world record) is possible and that a new trend colour…
Vacheron Constantin makes no secret of the significance of its Patrimony collection for the maison. The name itself, ‘Patrimony’, speaks to the brand’s heritage, evoking a deep legacy of history, emotion, responsibility, and a commitment to carry that legacy forward. When the horology house from Geneva first decided to launch the collection twenty years ago,…
The history of Cartier's world-renowned horological creations spans well over a century. However, the Cartier Ballon Bleu de Cartier is still a relatively new addition. Since its release in the 2000s, it's become one of the most-loved unisex watches out there – particularly for women looking to break away from stagnant, over-marketed watch designs. As…
At first sight, this new timepiece from Swiss watchmaker Carl F. Bucherer seems so simple and elegant, nearly inconspicuous. Sure, it is equipped with a tourbillon complication which still today remains one of the most complex technologies in watchmaking, but to be honest there are hardly any renowned watchmakers without offering tourbillon complications today. However,…
To mark the completion of its new production building at the headquarters of the manufacture in Plan-les-Ouates, Patek Philippe is launching a limited edition Calatrava in stainless steel: the Calatrava Manufacture Edition Ref. 6007A-001. The watch couldn't differ more from its predecessors. Patek Philippe is one of the most formidable watchmakers in the world, and…
Whenever Raphael Nadal sweeps across the court for hours again while wearing his Richard Mille watch, the sportsman doesn’t have to care any longer about damage that might be caused by overwinding. Thanks to Richard Milles newest invention: a declutching rotor system. Given that the Richard Mille testimonial already owns one of the only 100…
There still is a strong desire for vintage-style on the watch market. Hence, there are hardly any brands that don’t offer heritage models in their collections. They meticulously follow design codes from the original models – colours, dials, straps are copied as detailed as possible and some recent models have even been reproduced almost identically.…
Whereas many brands of traditional mechanical watchmaking try to adopt new smart technology approaches, the renowned Maison Vacheron Constantin holds on to classical values. At SIHH 2018 Geneva’s oldest watch Manufacture (established 1755) introduces three new timepieces called FIFTYSIX and inspired by Vacheron Constantin’s important and iconic watch from 1956. The Vacheron Constantin 6073 –…
There is always some anniversary to be celebrated in the watch industry. And although the history of Montblanc watches is comparatively young, the Hamburg based brand yet already celebrates a very special anniversary – Minerva turns 160 years. The Maison was founded 1858 by Charles-Yvan Robert in Villeret and was acquired by Montblanc in 2007.…
As soon as the five starting lights on Boulevard Albert 1er turn green at 3 p.m. on 25 May 2025 and the Formula 1 TAG Heuer Grand Prix de Monaco 2025 begins, they will also mark the beginning of a new era in the watch world at the historic race track. In celebration of the…
Rolex may produce over a million watches a year, but this doesn’t stop mystery from shrouding it in many aspects. One such aspect is the off-catalogue Rolex models, reserved for VIP clients and usually covered in a variety of different coloured gemstones. Gem-set pieces would have once been one off commissions for extremely important clients…
If you want to use an altimeter when mountaineering or hiking, you can of course do so with countless electronically operated gadgets. But it gets exciting when the display is built into a purely mechanical wristwatch. The watch manufacture Oris from Hölstein took on this challenge when it launched the ProPilot Altimeter, the world's first mechanical…
Every watch manufacture has one or more iconic models that have enjoyed great popularity for years. For Piaget, the Polo watch line is one of them. Since its launch in 1979 as the brand's first sports watch, it has established itself as the Maison's best-selling collection. Thanks to the Polo, the watch manufacture has already…