English: Exceptional singing bird box with music and repeating watch by Frères Rochat, Geneva, No. 61, the box attributed to Georges Rémond et Compagnie. Made for the Chinese market circa 1820. Rare, 18K gold, enamel, pearl and turquoise-set singing bird box with independent musical movement and center-seconds, quarter-repeating watch. Four-body, rectangular with rounded corners decorated with royal blue translucent enamel swagged classical urns, each side and the base with panels of “basket” engine-turning, the borders decorated with royal blue translucent champlevé enamel stylized flowers and leaves, hinged side panel for the key compartment, hinged front panel with aperture for the watch with pearl-set border, the hinged top panel opening to reveal a polished and foliate engraved gold plate, oval medallion concealing the bird very finely chased with a bouquet of flowers set with pearls and turquoises within half-pearl-set frame, when the bird cover is opened, the bird rises and begins to move and the song starts, activated by a slide in the edge of the case, the articulated bird sings, rotates, turns its head, opens its beak, flaps its wings and moves its tail. White enamel with radial Roman numerals, outer minute and seconds dot divisions. Blued-steel spearhead hands, gold center-seconds hand. M. 17 x 63 mm, rectangular, brass, going barrel, cylinder escapement with brass escape wheel, three-arm balance, bluedsteel flat balance spring, repeating on two rectangular-shaped straight gongs via a gold slide at the base of the box.

The singing bird movement: 45 x 70 mm., rectangular brass, fusee and chain, eight cams and a whistle with sliding piston for the song's modulation, the cams rotate four times per song and lift one step every rotation, allowing a long duration of singing, the multicolored feathered bird with moving wings, beak, tail, and turning head rotates on its axis, reflected on the inside of the medallion which is mirror-polished and concave, enlarging the bird in its reflection, cam-controlled rising of the bird medallion and the bird, with five-wheel train terminated with a pinion in eccentric adjustable bushing to regulate the speed of the opening and closing, this complicated mechanism allows for precision control of the order and speed of the bird rising and the medallion opening. Musical movement: Pin barrel playing with two stacks of eight tuned teeth each, with grasshopper-shaped vibrating tuned blades, activated by a bolt on the back of the case. Stamped "FR" in oval and numbered on the watch movement and bird movement. Dim. 87 x 62 x 28 mm.

It is exceptional to find a singing bird box with both music and a watch with repeating. The musical movement is interesting in that it has tuned steel teeth of “grasshopper” form. The bent shape of these teeth was intended to provide greater length and therefore lower notes.