The Swiss watchmaking firm Jaquet Droz has short-circuited the 18th and 21st centuries with the Charming Bird. It's a wristwatch that includes a tiny automaton bird inside the crystal, that sings and ...

The company refers to these exceptional creations as the “art of astonishment,” and indeed these pieces take an incredible amount of detail and hours to create and are often years in development ...

A 19TH CENTURY curio is heading to the US after it sold for more than 40 times its auction estimate. Made in about 1880, the bird automaton was sold at at Thomas Watson’s recent fine art, antiques and ...

In 18th-century Europe, stylish aristocrats taught their pet canaries to sing tunes with a device called a serinette. An automated pipe organ, the serinette repeatedly cranked out the same sequence of ...

Nigel Havers presides as five sellers aim to get the best price for their items, including a village fete sign, a telescope, a Martaban jar, a skeleton statue and a bird automaton. Show more Nigel ...