Pierre Jaquet-Droz

Pierre Jaquet-Droz (French: [ʒakɛ dʁo]; 1721–1790) was a watchmaker of the late eighteenth century.

[1] He lived in Paris, London, and Geneva, where he designed and built animated dolls known as automata to help his firm sell watches and mechanical caged songbirds.

[3] The automata of Jaquet-Droz are considered to be some of the finest examples of human mechanical problem solving.

Three particularly complex and still functional dolls, now known as the Jaquet-Droz automata, are housed at the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire (art and history museum) in Neuchâtel, Switzerland.

"The gentleness of my dog," said Droz, "is his least merit; if your Majesty touch one of the apples, which you see in the shepherd's basket, you will admire the fidelity of this animal."