The Hour Glass launches its Singapore Singing Bird Cage limited collection.

SINGAPORE — Singing birds are the focus of The Hour Glass’ Singapore Edition offerings for this year. Not real ones, but mechanical masterpieces by renowned manufacturer Reuge made specially for the retailer.

Called Singapore Singing Bird Cage, the limited edition pieces — there are only five in the world — feature a bird cage with two singing Crimson Sunbirds, which are informally nominated by nature lovers as the national bird of Singapore. It is meant as a nod to how singing birds have been a part of the country’s landscape. Each bird is composed of 20 different pieces assembled by hand in Switzerland.

“We originally had this idea in 2013, to do something special for The Hour Glass in Singapore. We started it last year, but it took almost a year to make (these five cages with the birds),” said a spokesperson for The Hour Glass. “We wanted to do something with the bird because not many people know we have a national bird.”

However, she stressed that it wasn’t a deliberate attempt to cash in on SG50 fervour. “It’s out this year, but it’s just a coincidence that it happens to be the SG50 year.”

The Singapore Singing Bird Cage is available at Malmaison by The Hour Glass, L’Atelier by The Hour Glass and More Passion by The Hour Glass, and it doesn’t come cheap: Each cage with a pair of birds is priced at S$16,000.