Jaquet Droz traces its origins to Pierre Jaquet-Droz, who was born in 1721 in La Chaux-de-Fonds. The brand’s history page states that he devoted himself entirely to clockmaking from 1738 to 1747. After a trip to Spain in 1758 and a return to La Chaux-de-Fonds in 1759, he focused on watches, clocks, and automata, working with his son Henri-Louis Jaquet-Droz and Jean-Frédéric Leschot. From 1773 onward, Jaquet-Droz and Leschot developed increasingly sophisticated automata, culminating in The Writer, The Draughtsman, and The Musician, presented in La Chaux-de-Fonds in 1774.
The site states that more than 600 pieces were exported to China in 10 years and that Jaquet-Droz was the first clockmaking brand to be imported there. It also says the brand added a silicon balance spring to the escapement of its movements. In 2013, during the brand’s 275th anniversary, Jaquet Droz presented The Charming Bird as the first singing bird automaton ever created on a wristwatch. A brand news page states that The Charming Bird won the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève in the Mechanical Exception category in 2015.
Collections documented on the site have included Automata, Ateliers d'Art, Grande Seconde, SW, Petite Heure Minute, Lady 8, and Astrale. The site describes the Grande Seconde as inspired by a pocket watch created by Pierre Jaquet-Droz in 1784. The Ateliers d'Art pages highlight miniature painting, sculpted and engraved ornamentation, and paillonné enameling on certain pieces and limited editions.
Today, the site places Jaquet Droz in La Chaux-de-Fonds. Its Ateliers Jaquet Droz page states that all of the brand’s timepieces are assembled in the Atelier de Haute Horlogerie there. The same page describes a 2,500 square meter site and notes both an Atelier Automates and an Atelier de Restauration for historic watches.
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