Six Sensational Bird Watches (slideshow)

There are a host of wonderful trends in luxury watchmaking today, with some focusing on the technical side and others focusing on the aesthetic side. Additionally, some brands bring these two realms together in artful majesty — offering artistic, technically advanced masterpieces on the wrist. Often those masterpieces emulate nature — flora, fauna,and even birds in flight. In fact, more than half a dozen top watch brands have embraced the graceful image of our feathered friends, re-creating them on dials that are painted, sculpted and carved with sensational bird images.

Bird-Inspired Watches

Among the brands that are masters at interpreting nature on the dial are Cartier, Bulgari, Bovet, Chanel, Jaquet Droz and Van Cleef & Arpels. Cartier, for instance, has an amazing repertoire of high-jeweled interpretations of the birds — ranging from cuff watches to secret watches and even watches with detachable brooches that stand atop the case like a sculptured work of art until removed and used as a pin. Similarly, Van Cleef & Arpels turns the bird into a moving vision of flight in its newest complication unveiled earlier this year. In the Oiseaux Enchantes line, three separate birds fly between tufts of clouds on the dial. The moving birds and hand sculpted and the floating clouds are made of mother of pearl.

Jaquet Droz interprets a pair of birds atop a nest with smaller baby birds inside in its series of complicated automaton minute repeater watches. As the repeater is activated, the birds dip their heads to feed the babies, who reach for the food in a magical dance of carefully choreographed elegance. In other renditions by a host of brands, birds are magnificently handprinted into floral backgrounds or as stunning stand-alone motifs that delight the wearer and all around him or her.

Bird Watches Slide Show
Here we bring you a look at six sensational bird-inspired watches.