The Signing Machine of Jaquet Droz

Three centuries ago, Pierre Jaquet-Droz was busy working on his automatons that kept the royal courts of Europe spellbound, The Writer, The Draughtsman and The Musician, just as many works of engineering grazing magic. Probably the most fascinating is The Writer, which even at that time could be programmed to produce a given sentence in flowing script and later on, became an inspiration to Martin Scorsese for his movie, “Hugo”. The desire to keep such unique expertise alive has never left the Jaquet Droz artisans.

After the incredible Time Writing Machine, presented in 2009, or more recently the animated dials of The Bird Repeater and The Charming Bird, Jaquet Droz is presenting “The Signing Machine”, a contemporary automaton capable of reproducing the signature of its owner.

The design and the small size of this automaton are inspired by the most emblematic object of the new millennium – the smartphone, but inside the mechanism stays true to the heritage of Pierre Jaquet-Droz.