Minute Repeater and Grande Sonnerie Pocket Watch

Inventory Number: PW1809038

Circa 1890, 56mm, 14K red gold open-face case, with minute repeater and Grande Sonnerie functions.

Minute repeater

The first mechanisms to precisely indicate the number of minutes elapsed appeared in the early years of the 18th century (1700-1710), for the most part in southern Germany.  Thomas Mudge has traditionally been credited with the invention of this complication, circa 1750.

The minute repeater works like the quarter repeater, with the addition that, after the hours and a quarter hours are sounded, the number of minutes since the last quarter-hour is sounded. This requires three different sounds to distinguish hours, quarters, and minutes. Often the hours are signaled by a low tone, the quarters are signaled by a sequence of two tones ("ding-dong"), and the minutes by a high tone.

For example, if it is 3:18, after activating the repeater mechanism, it will strike“Dong, Dong, Dong； Ding-Dong；Ding, Ding, Ding” to indicate this specific time.

Grande Sonnerie is a quarter striking mechanism combined with a repeater. It will strike the hours and quarters automatically or at will by means of a push-piece.