When Boston Dynamics recently unveiled an update of its Atlas robot, commentators marvelled at its eerily human movement, the fluidity of its walk and softness of its gestures, despite a blank, disc-like face. The latest arrival from the offshoot of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, it felt new, futuristic and faintly disturbing.
Perhaps the same sensation accompanied a very different unveiling: of three mechanical “humanoids” by Swiss horologist Pierre Jaquet-Droz to Europe’s royal courts in the 1770s. Called The Writer, The Draughtsman and The Musician, this trio of seated figures have delicately painted faces, coiffed human hair and fashionable silk clothing.
They write poetry, sketch drawings and play music, powered not by electricity or AI, but by hand-cut gears and cams rotating in impossibly complex configurations. Their movements are delicate enough to dip a quill into ink without blotting the page and play music without missing a note.
Three centuries on, these automata remain as captivating as they are uncanny. Still fully functional (they give demonstrations at the Neuchâtel Museum of Art and History), the engineering behind them asserts Pierre Jaquet-Droz was not merely a watchmaker, but a visionary years ahead of his time, who helped lay the groundwork for what humans and machines have achieved.
The weight of this is not lost on Alain Delamuraz, who today leads the Swiss Jaquet Droz company as chief executive. “Our tradition is innovation,” he explains. “We have been so innovative for nearly 300 years, it has become permanent.”
Perhaps as proof, despite leading a watch house, he prefers not to use the term at all. “We make pieces of art that sometimes indicate the time,” he says with a smile.
Since his arrival, Delamuraz has quietly undone much of the brand’s commercial expansion of the 2010s. All 176 points of sale have closed and annual production has reduced from 5,000 pieces to only 100. Today, anyone wishing to acquire a Jaquet Droz must travel to its headquarters in La Chaux-de-Fonds in Switzerland. Prices have risen accordingly, from about $50,000 to more than $500,000.
By conventional metrics, it sounds risky, yet it is part of embracing the remarkable legacy that Jaquet Droz embodies. “We are 50 people today, and we were 50 people when we made 5,000 watches a year,” Delamuraz says.
“The fewer pieces you make, the higher the level must be. That is why we only make for kings.” It is not hyperbole. Pierre Jaquet-Droz counted among his patrons the monarchs of Spain, Britain and France, as well as the Qianlong Emperor of China.
Delamuraz prefers not to see the past as a template. Instead, he quotes French writer Victor Hugo. “‘The future is a door, and the key is the past’. I love that because this is exactly what we try to do. We take all the inspiration of heritage and legacy to construct the future.”
He is, however, wary of falling into the trap of allowing that same heritage to become a constraint. “The real question is not what Pierre Jaquet-Droz did,” he says. “But what he would do today. He was disruptive. He was a little crazy. So we must remain a little crazy.”
The watch on his own wrist is a prime example. A Grande Seconde Skelet Sapphire, it is a fluorescent yellow-strapped piece, with a skeletonised movement that appears to float inside a sapphire crystal case. Although inspired by an 18th-century pocket watch, it is so contemporary and so unlike conventional high-end watch architecture, as Delamuraz notes with a laugh, that it is often mistaken for a Swatch.
Other pieces lean more to the theatrical. The Tourbillon Skelet Ceramic Skull Pointillism features a skull and crossbones carved in gold and decorated with 3,000 hand-painted dots, while the Charming Bird Titanium features an automaton bird only 13.5 millimetres tall that whistles, flaps and spins.
“It’s the first and only whistling bird watch in the world,” he says. The birdsong is created via air pumps at 8 and 10 o’clock and inspired by a 1770s singing bird in a cage. Now with a 47mm Grade 5 titanium case, it is a piece of history remade in modern materials.
Another piece is the Imperial Dragon Automaton Sapphire Opal that features a dragon coiled around the dial, which was designed by Canadian illustrator John Howe, best known for his concept design work on the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films.
At the press of a button, the creature flicks its tail, raises the caudal crest on its spine, blinks and opens its mouth. One steely claw clasps a large Akoya pearl at 6 o’clock. “Howe designed this dragon for us inspired by the [JRR Tolkein] books and our artist sculpted and engraved it in three-dimensional gold. We animated it and gave it life,” says Delamuraz.
None exist without a buyer, however. Each commission is one-of-one, a collaboration shaped around the collector’s own mythology, be it tennis, rock stars, dragons or camels in lavender fields. “It is always between two artists,” he says. “The one who makes it, and the one who will live with it. Each piece is different, and the only common point is our know-how.”
With a young atelier – the average age of the artisans is only 34 – Delamuraz encourages his team to experiment and be unafraid of failure. One idea being explored is painting enamel on to glass to create modern stained glass. That nothing usable has transpired yet is beside the point.
“Part of their job is to create and not to repeat what they have always done,” he explains. “Pierre Jaquet-Droz created a new way. We have to keep that spirit and not follow others. Luxury in the last decades has been a commercial transaction. We have to develop a personal relationship, as there is no real luxury at this level without emotion.”
In an era defined by digital abstraction, Delamuraz’s ambition is human. “We want to rehumanise luxury,” he says. “And put the human being back at the centre.”
It is not time, he suggests, that these objects ultimately measure. “Money is useless as long as you have money. Time is useless as long as you have time.” He adds, after a pause: “So perhaps time itself is the greatest luxury of all.”
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