The search for the perfect sound: a clear, crystal-clear, handmade gong
To create a minute repeater watch, watchmakers working on grand complications are not enough, you need the collaboration of an acoustics expert. And for each mechanism, at least one month is needed.
2' min read
2' min read
Watch complications were born to fulfil a need. As hand enthusiasts know, the renowned and highly sophisticated minute repeater acoustically reproduces the exact hours and minutes on demand. The purpose for which it was born? To be able to read the time even in the evening, at a time in history, the 17th century, when electricity was not yet part of people's everyday life. If the first minute repeater model was introduced around 1680, major improvements and dedicated innovations were added as watchmaking progressed. A particular contribution came, in this field, from the great watchmaker Abraham-Louis Breguet who, in 1783, invented the sonorous spring as a replacement for the bell: wound around the movement and struck by the hammer, it was able to reproduce the sound of a gong more clearly while taking up much less space, with the effect of considerably reducing the thickness of pocket watches with this complication.
Today, minute repeater watches no longer actively play just that role, but represent the pinnacle of complicated haute horlogerie that not everyone can achieve. To achieve this, in fact, high technical knowledge and a lot of time are indispensable (on average, a month is needed for this mechanism on each watch). This is why creating a minute repeater watch requires not only watchmakers working on grand complications, but also the collaboration of an acoustics expert because one of the most important challenges is to find the best sound.
All aspects that are part of the tradition of Breguet and its Classique Répétition Minutes 7637, which, like all pieces from the Swiss maison with this complication, is handmade. This watch has a 42-mm-diameter case in pink gold and the black enamel dial has been crafted using the delicate Grand Feu technique that requires many steps before achieving the desired tone. The hands are made of gold and the minute repeater is operated by sliding the device located on the left side of the case. It is powered by an in-house mechanical hand-wound calibre, capable of a 40-hour power reserve, entirely hand-decorated (visible through the transparent case back) with mirror-polished steel hammers and a balance with a frequency of 2.5 Hertz.
The glorious sound springs, moulded in gold like the case (a solution that improves performance), are here fixed directly on the case middle and not on the plate: this makes the sound much clearer. A sound to be listened to with great pleasure not only at night.
