A magical automaton from Jaquet Droz
Jaquet Droz automaton
It was from 1738 that Pierre Jaquet-Droz devoted himself entirely to clockmaking. He produced a series of longcase (or “grandfather”) clocks whose increasingly sophisticated movements outclassed anything that had yet been produced. Within no time, his watchmaking movements with music and automata creations had caught the attention of a wealthy and demanding clientèle. The brand, till date, remains true to its origins and creates astounding timepieces and automatons. This year, the Magic Lotus Automaton from the marque is an astounding work of artistry and technical mastery – a zen view of life that hypontises…
Designed and assembled in-house, Jaquet Droz has chosen to represent perpetual cycle of life with a Lotus, with four flowers representing the four seasons or life-stages. A mother-of-pearl button at 3 o’clock symbolises the unopened Lotus bud upon a corolla of gold petals, evoking spring. To its left, a Lotus flower – with mother-of-pearl petals – in full bloom symbolises summer. A yellow sapphire with gold prongs represents the pistil and stamens, poised to fly away and give life in turn to new Lotus flowers. By its side, a Lotus flower fallen onto the water represents the third season, fall. Finally, winter is marked at 6 o’clock by the seed pod of the aquatic plant, which sinks to the bottom of the water to be buried, protecting the precious seeds to foster new Lotus flowers the following spring. The pod with seven diamonds represents the seeds – part of a circular animation.
The dial of the Magic Lotus Automaton comprises three sections. The first is immobile: the onyx watch dial with gold hour and minute hands. It is surrounded by a crescent-shaped fixed disk that attaches the Lotus life cycle to the piece, with reed stems and three suspended Lotus leaves in Grand Feu enamel on a white gold or red gold base. This composition of four seasons is suspended above the third peripheral disk, which fully rotates, and houses two utterly exceptional animations. The first is a Koi fish, famed for its longevity and a symbol of courage and perseverance. The Koi moves in the water in two different ways: it flaps its tails, creating the illusion of swimming through the water. It also moves vertically up and down, enabling it to move in the flowing river and dive beneath the Lotus leaves.
The Koi is complemented by the floating Lotus animation opposite. Mother-of-pearl petals surround an unprecedented movement at the heart of the Lotus: each time it passes beneath the dial or leaves, it acquires a new stone – alternately blue sapphire, yellow sapphire and ruby. The same stone never appears in the same place from one rotation to the next. The colour of the Lotus heart changes, invisibly, four times for every rotation around the river, and the same stone is never seen twice in a row. The Magic Lotus Automaton measures 43 mm in diameter and is available in a choice of red gold or white gold (limited series of 28 pieces of each). The bridges and oscillating weight on the caseback are hand-engraved with exclusive naturalist motifs or highly decorated. This new automaton, with four patents pending, features the most sophisticated dial ever produced by Jaquet Droz. The movement contains more than 500 components. The Magic Lotus Automaton can present on demand an animation lasting more than four minutes, with eight full rotations of 30 seconds each. A power reserve – symbolised by a hand-painted and hand-carved dragonfly in red gold – between 8 and 9 o’clock depicts the progress of this lengthy animation.
