It took the Jaquet Droz Team over eight years to create this masterpiece containing more than 1,200 components, including 84 ball bearings, 50 cams and 9 belts to create La Machine a Ecrire le Temps-"The Time Writing Machine." The Mechanism is activated by a simple touch and contains a stylus to mark the present time in hours and minutes. It features a system that converts analogue time (as indicated by the hands of a watch) into mechanical digital time written on the pad of paper. This project was the brainchild of Manuel Emch, President and head of artistic creation at Montres Jaquet Droz and was developed by the engineers and artisans at the manufacture in la Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland.