The lines between form, fun, and functionality have been blurry, especially in recent years. Which is why we see more and more mechanical objects with relationships to time but perhaps not directly related. Here Martin Green explores three such objects by Jaquet Droz, Urwerk, and MB&F.
Introduced in time for the 280th anniversary of Jaquet Droz in 2018, the Signing Machine was officially launched at Baselworld 2018. The Signing Machine is definitely a worthy descendant of Pierre Jaquet-Droz’s Writer automaton, widely considered one of the first computers in the world.
The claim to fame of Pierre Jaquet Droz (1721-1790) was his lifelike automata, also called androids. Continuing this long tradition, at Baselworld 2014 Jaquet Droz released an ultra-modern rendition of an automaton called the Writing Machine, which utilizes traditional techniques that have been miniaturized and modernized. CEO Marc Hayek explains the premise of this contemporary android.