Of course, it is! The back plate of the clock bears the unmistakable inscription: ‘P. Jaquet Droz A La Chaux de Fonds’. Elsewhere, the clock’s wooden cabinet was confirmed to be made of spruce wood from 1754 using tree-ring dating analysis, a year that places it firmly around the time of the height of Droz’s prowess. (He was born in 1721 and passed in 1790.) And not to mention the small matter of the insane engineering that went into the construction of the singing bird automaton, of which Droz was the man to be wholly capable of.

Yes, we did. This mid-18th century creation had been unaccounted for in large parts of history. There had been few records of what happened to the clock after it was made. It was rumoured that Napoleon Bonaparte had come into possession of the clock, and ordered the automaton movement to be removed and installed in an Empire cabinet to be gifted to his sister-in-law, Catherine of Wurtemberg.

Besides being a living testament to Jaquet Droz’s genius? The ‘Singing Bird Clock’ is a signature of the watchmaker in that it incorporates the following elements: a lifelike automaton, a timekeeping device, and high-level artistry contributed by various artisans and craftsmen.


