We chase the Extraordinary. Our purpose is to create and offer you beautiful works of art through our jewellery collections.
Henri Maillardet (1745 – 1830) was a Swiss vanguard mechanician and artist of the 18th century, born in 1745 in a village close to Neuchatel. He worked mostly in London producing clocks and other automated mechanisms. He created several singing birds, automated animals (the caterpillar, the frog) and the automated writer – The Juvenile Artist. Around 1800 Henri Maillardet built this extraordinary Automaton, The Draughtsman-Writer, which had the largest “memory” of any such machine ever constructed during that time, able to produce four drawings and three poems (two in French and one in English).
Today, Henri Maillardet is an exclusive jewellery Swiss brand which offers beautiful jewellery, a sophisticated champagne and an elegant art concept space where customers can enjoy exceptional artistic experiences. The brand proposes to its customers a unique combination between the classical value of gems and high-end materials, the technology employed and the inspiration from art. We offer not objects, but undying pieces of art that can stand the test of time.
Our slogan, “Return to Exclusivity”, is the very essence of the Henri Maillardet creations.
Automata, such as Maillardet’s Automaton, demonstrates mankind’s efforts to imitate life by mechanical means—and are fascinating examples of the intersection of art and science, beauty and material, invisible and touchable magnificence.
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Render yourself the luxury of being unforgettable. Your choices are the taste you show to the world. Make them memorable.
By all standards, Beauty also means innovation. We drive our inspiration from Henri Maillardet, the inventor of the Juvenile Automaton. In the 18th century, his creation was light years ahead of its time. It was the first computer by all technical definitions, and it was majestic. It could perform automatic operations, writing and sketching drawings with no human input. It was a thing of Beauty that propelled his visionary work into the future.
Until 1928, when the Juvenile Automaton was first presented at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, it was of unknown origin. However, once restored to order, the machine itself provided the name of its creator, penning the words ‘written by the Automaton of Maillardet’ at the end of his sequence.
The visionary genius of Henri Maillardet has inspired us to be innovation-centric in our every effort, and to prioritize meaning above all else. In Beauty, meaning is achieved by abiding to archetypal values and constantly building upon them.
Each of the collections we bring to life, whether jewellery or artistry, is based upon the belief that aesthetics matter. They speak of our education, they take us back to exclusivity through their execution, through the new and powerful meanings they convey and through the visionary thinking behind their design.
Returning to Exclusivity means embracing innovation with meaning. To us, this is a perpetual value – bringing back the archetypal values our society has evolved upon, while innovating to bring more Beauty and meaning into the world.
