<center>The main capital of watch brands is time, in the broadest sense of the word. But also their age, because the older the manufacture, the more traditions and inventions it has. A well-known symbol of Swiss watchmaking, Vacheron Constantin is established in 1755. However, the title of the oldest watch brand in Geneva for many years disputed Jaquet Droz, marking the date of its Foundation in 1738 — that's when Pierre Jacquet Droz opened his Studio in La Chaux-de-Fonz, 17 years earlier than Jean-Marc-Vacheron. The Swiss are now very rarely and reluctantly rewriting the watch history, and this dispute will continue for decades. However, for fans of the talent of Jacques-Draw is not the main reason to admire the watchmaker.
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Pierre Jacquet-DRO was a true man of the Enlightenment. He was born on 28 July 1721 in La Chaux-de-Fonds, a mountain town in the neuchâtel region of Western Switzerland. The boy's father, farmer Abraham Jacquet-DRO, wished his son a better life, and therefore on the advice of the vicar sent him to study at the cleric — first at the faculty of philosophy of the University of Basel, and then at the University of Neuchatel, where he studied theology.
But Pierre did not finish his studies and returned to his native La Chaux-de-Fonds, where in 1738 he opened a watch workshop on his father's farm. At that time in the region of neuchâtel was all a bit watchmakers: father Pierre was making watches in the long winter evenings, distant relatives Jaquet-Droz, a family of Roberu and Andosov, did the same. They inspired and supported Pierre's intention to become a watchmaker, and Abraham-Louis Sandoz was the first supplier of cases for his watches. Undoubtedly, this decision was influenced by studying-in Basel Pierre Jacquet-DRO listened to the lectures of the famous scientist, mathematician, engineer and biologist Daniel Bernoulli, the author of "Hydrodynamics" and one of the first versions of the law of energy conservation.
Scientific progress at that time was moving by leaps and bounds — Carl Linnaeus has already published his work on biological species, and Leibniz wrote about the world as a horology mundi, "clock universe", where everything is arranged and works rationally and progressively, as in the clockwork. At the end of the XVIII century watchmaking experienced its key stage — the main components and details of mechanisms were created. In Paris at the time worked with the famous watchmakers Ferdinand Berthoud and Jean-Antoine lépine and Abraham-Louis Breguet, which greatly improved the mechanics of the clock and made many useful inventions like a gear winding barrel and the tourbillon. Jacques Droz also visited Paris, where he learned about the innovations of watch mechanics and found the best suppliers for his watches. In Switzerland, Pierre was the first to apply the latest developments of that time: Lepin's drum, pump system of the plant and mechanisms with an automatic plant. But Jacques-DRO did not just make a clock - his desktop models, he also supplied with mechanical dolls, automatic machines, singing birds, which made his watch in the eyes of the audience a real miracle.
# The king and the shepherd
In those days, the only way for the watchmaker to achieve recognition was an audience with the king-the August persons were very interested in watchmaking, taking care of masters and organizing special competitions and awards for the best inventors. And the top of his career was the title of court watchmaker. The chance was presented to Pierre Jacquet-DRO-he met Scot George Keith, Governor of Neuchatel, who gave Pierre a letter of recommendation to his friend, a Spanish nobleman Jacinto Hovert with a request to arrange an audience with the king of Spain Ferdinand VI. With this letter, Jacques-DRO and went to the Pyrenees on April 4, 1758, taking a special way Packed 6 models of watches, improvised Gevril and Abraham-Louis Sandoz, who became by the time the father-in-law of Pierre. After a journey of 49 days, the Swiss arrived in Madrid. And waited for an audience of 5 months - not without pleasure for themselves, however. As Sandoz wrote in his diary, they enjoyed the hospitality of Signor Hovert, Spanish architecture and local delicacies, having tasted cucumbers and tomatoes for the first time.
In September, Ferdinand VI finally received Pierre Jacquet DRO at the castle in Villaviciosa de Odon, near Madrid,where the king spent his days in mourning for the recently deceased Queen Barbara. There, Pierre showed the monarch his watch, among which was the desktop model "Shepherd", Le Berger. The clock was equipped with many complications, including a repeater with a big fight, perpetual calendar, barometer and astronomical function of the equation of time. But this did not attract the king, but moving figures-machines: at the top of the clock sat a shepherd and played the flute, and at his feet was a dog, guarding a basket of fruit. When someone took the fruit from the basket, the dog began to bark, so naturalistic that the Royal hounds answered. So the watchmaker was able to captivate the king, who, along with his court madly admired mechanical miracles. As Jacques-DRO don Jacinto wrote, " you will not believe how happy the king was... he could not break away from the clock and personally launched them a hundred times." The success was complete: Ferdinand VI bought all six models and paid for them two thousand gold coins, a fortune. Returning to La Chaux-de-Fonds at the end of January 1759, Pierre Jacquet-DRO was able to move his workshop to a new spacious room and expand production.
# Conquest Of Europe
At the table sits a boy, on kind of quite child. He is wearing a coat and a shirt with a lush toad, but for some reason a barefoot. In his hand is a pen, which he dips into the ink tank and begins to write, keeping his eyes on his work. He writes the phrase: "Les automates Jaquet Droz a neuchatel". Neuchatel, as they say, especially with a lowercase letter, due to the traditional competition between him and La Chaux-de-Fonds. This boy is not an animator and not an actor, but a mechanical doll, one of the three famous machines that Pierre-Jacques-Dros produced in the 1770s, together with his son Henri-Louis and foster child, a neighbor's orphan Jean-Frederic Lesho. The mechanism that controls the actions of the automatic scribe is extremely complex: its Stanovoy ridge is a vertical cylinder with three batches of Cams strung on it, with each of which a separate lever interacts. Three levers are responsible for horizontal, vertical movements of the hand and for pressing the pen on the paper. Lower back scribe is a disc with the letters it prints, the possibility of different ways to program it to get a different phrase.
The scribe, as well as the draftsman and the musician became the pinnacle of the work of Pierre Jacquet-DRO and his companions. When the machines were finished in 1774, in the workshop of Jacques-Droz an endless stream were willing to look at these miracles. Seeing this interest, Pierre decided to arrange a" family " machines tour of Europe, and in 1775 took them to Paris, to show Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette. According to the legend, the Swiss were so worried before the audience that Jean-Frederic Lesho accidentally changed the settings of the painter's mechanism, and when the French Queen asked him to draw his portrait, the painter instead depicted a dog. But, despite the embarrassment, the exhibition of Jacques-Dros was so stunning that watchmakers for several years took her around Europe, visiting London, Holland, Flanders and many French cities, and then organized a show in Geneva.
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Of course, the wonderful mechanics immediately found a buyer, despite the exorbitant cost of machines in 24 000 livres. He took them to Spain, where the dolls happened semi-legendary story, which wrote the newspaper. The point is that on the machines was written a denunciation to the Inquisition upstanding citizens assured, if they are possessed by the devil. The Holy fathers intended to interrogate the scribe, the painter and the musician and then burn them — together with the owner. But he had thought to reveal before the inquisitors puppet "inside out". Seeing the work of levers and wheels, the inquisitors admitted that the actions of machines no evil magic there. You can see them now — all three dolls are in the Museum of art and history of neuchâtel, the Saturday sessions are mechanical wonders.
London — China
Meanwhile, Pierre Jacquet-DRO flourished — so much so that in 1774 he opened another Studio in London. It was run by the watchmaker's sons, who were able to find new opportunities for the development of the company. In London, they collaborated with the firm SOH & Son, engaged in trade in the far East — so the clock Jacques Droh got to China, India and Japan. Chinese emperors were great experts and connoisseurs of mechanics, and until now the watch collection of the Forbidden city in Beijing houses many models of watchmakers from La Chaux-de-Fon. Many of them get to the auctions — mostly due to the fact that the models were made in two copies, and so, in pairs, were transported to China. This practice was common in respect of all orders sent to distant countries: the way to them was long and full of dangers, so if one clock on the road will break or be damaged, their "insurance" was a second copy.
In China, Jacques-DRO supplied mainly pocket watches with enamel miniatures and pearls, music boxes for snuff and perfume bottles with a built-in clock. As for the decor, then the firm Jacques-Dros has achieved excellent results and contributed to the invention of the technique "pine" — the addition of parts of gold or silver leaf in a layer of translucent varnish. For the emperors of China made and songbirds, as also was the famous Pierre Jaquet-Droz. According to the archives, on February 23, 1786, a pair of cages with mechanical birds were sent to Beijing, which moved around the cage and sang solo and duet. Also in the cage were installed a blooming flower and a butterfly waving its wings. This object, whose cost was then 1200 pounds, was equipped with a clock with the function of a quarter tutor.
# Back to roots
Unfortunately, the prosperity of the family Jacques-Droh did not last long — by the 1790s, many firms with which the Swiss collaborated, went bankrupt, including SOH & Son. In 1790, Pierre Jacquet-DRO died, a year later - his son Henri-Louis, and Jean-Frederic Lesho could not survive long afloat in such conditions, even more deteriorated with the French revolution and the Napoleonic wars. In fact, in the next hundred years, the company was in a preserved state until in 2000 it was bought by Swatch Group. The revival of Jaquet Droz takes place gradually and with careful adherence to the traditions and aesthetics laid down by Pierre Jacquet-Droz.</center>
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