MINUTE REPEATER WATCH HOW TO

With this, you’ll at least get a basic understanding of how the minute repeater chimes the time on command. And while I can’t give you a technical breakdown of all of the hundreds of components (nor would you want me to!), I can offer you a basic overview of the most important ones and how they work together. To really, fully understand it takes years of hands-on experience and accumulated knowledge. To be honest, the minute repeater is one of the most intricate, finicky, and, well, complicated complications in all of horology. Movement produced by Audemars Piguet How does a minute repeater work? In 1889, Audemars Piguet produced the first minute repeater wristwatch movement for Louis Brandt.

Watchmakers took Breguet’s design and ran with it. In 1787, however, none other than Abraham-Louis Breguet introduced the first minute repeater with the metal gong as we know it today. All the various repeaters at this time relied on tiny bells inside the movement.

They chimed hours, then quarters, then minutes passed since the last quarter. We’re getting closer!įinally, in the next decade or so, the first full-fledged minute repeaters emerged from Germany at the hands of (unfortunately) unknown watchmakers. Thus, if the time was 7:58, it would chime 7:55. This improved version chimed the hours, no quarters, but minutes that had passed in five-minute increments. In 1710, Samuel Watson introduced the five-minute repeater. Thus, at 7:58, the watch would chime 7:52½. These chimed hours, quarters, then another tone if over 7½ minutes had passed since the last quarter. Though it’s very difficult to find an exact year or inventor, half-quarter repeaters emerged next. For example, at 7:58, the watch would simply chime 7:45. Somewhat limited in functionality, Quare’s watch chimed the hours and quarter hours that had already passed. In 1687, watchmaker Daniel Quare received the first patent for a quarter repeater. Image credit: A quick historical backgroundĪ minute repeater is not the only kind of repeater watch, but it is the most accurate. Minute repeater and split-seconds chronograph pocket watch, circa 1895. With a minute repeater, to hear the time, the user needs only to slide a lever, and the watch works its magic! All of these tones are timed according to the watchmaker’s standards.Ĭoolest of all, it does this all on command. This separates the minute repeater from similar chiming complications, the grande and petite sonnerie, which chime hours and quarter hours automatically as they pass. Then, it chimes the quarter hours with sets of high and low tones - “ DING dong.” Finally, it chimes the minutes since the last quarter-hour with low tones - “ dong“. A typical minute repeater first chimes the hours with high tones - “ DING“. The case itself amplifies the sound, bringing sweet, horological music to our ears.Ī minute repeater chimes the time in three steps. These gongs attach to the movement and cuddle up snugly to the case. In most minute repeaters, two little hammers strike circular metal rings, called gongs. Quite simply, a minute repeater is a watch that chimes the current time to the minute. Hammers and gongs in a Girard-Perregaux Minute Repeater Tri-Axial Tourbillon What is a minute repeater? With this, I hope to slightly demystify the complication, while fostering an even greater appreciation for the human ingenuity required to create it. Today, we’ll take a look at exactly what a minute repeater is and the basics of how it works. Whether used out of convenience or necessity, the sweet chimes of the minute repeater could help anyone from pampered royalty to those who were visually impaired.

MINUTE REPEATER WATCH HOW TO

Like all watch complications, however, the minute repeater was born as the solution to a problem - how to tell the time in the dark. Assembling a minute repeater is enough to send most watchmakers to the nearest dark closet, only to curl up in the fetal position and long for the days of fiddling with ETA 6497s. And when it comes to complexity and delicacy in construction, it’s no joke either. An “entry-level” minute repeater wristwatch demands as much as a new, entry-level Mercedes-Benz. In terms of cost, it’s certainly no slouch. When it comes to watch complications, the minute repeater has a reputation few others can touch.

Minute repeater watch