One of Jaquet Droz's highlights at this year's BaselWorld is the whimsical yet ultracomplicated Charming Bird watch which has become the signature of the Jaquet Droz brand. This watch celebrates the spirit of innovation and aesthetic refinement of its founder Pierre Jaquet-Droz, a maître horloger since 1738, who became famous all over the world in the Age of Enlightenment for his automata. Charming Bird made its debut in 2014. When it was perfected in the following year, the watch promptly won the prize for "Mechanical Exception" at the 2015 Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Genève. For this year, the brand has reinterpreted its Grand Seconde watch to offer the 47mm Charming Bird with a more contemporary aesthetic featuring a grey and black colour scheme with a beautifully engraved mother-of-pearl dial. The dainty and exquisitely handcrafted avian figure which can sing, spin around and flap its wings is encased inside a sapphire crystal dome. Only eight pieces of red and white gold are available. Jaquet Droz watches are known for having two dials - one for the time and a much larger one for the seconds - in the shape of an 8. This year the brand revisited the "figure 8" aesthetic again with overlapping dials. Presented for the first time in a 43mm steel case, the Grande Seconde Off-Centered Onyx amplifies the intensity of black with an onyx dial that gives the impression that the two rings made of polished white gold are floating in a dark pool.
