“It’s complicated”: Acoustic watch complications

I have mentioned in many of my previous articles that my favourite watch complication is the minute repeater. The idea of a mechanical device that can be worn on the wrist which can both keep time accurately, and chime it out audibly on demand, continues to blow mind and I can’t really foresee a time when it won’t.

Not only is it an appreciation for the unfathomable complexity of the mechanics behind the complication which serves to elicit my appreciation and wins my mind, but moreover it is something a lot more basic that wins my heart – the fact it makes a sound!

On a personal level I find there to be something incredibly whimsical and charming about watches (or clocks for that matter) which make sound, with the watch giving you something back to react to, almost like it is talking to you in its own special way.

Even growing up, I used to love this – I can remember visiting my Nan’s house when I was younger and asking her to set her cuckoo clock to chime; pressing the button on my Grandad’s digital watch to make it read the time out; or pressing the button on his Zeon digital James Bond watch that made it chime out the famous theme music (both of the latter probably to the extent that it needed a new battery far more often than it should have).

Either way, I don’t think I’ve ever heard an acoustic watch complication that has failed to make me smile, and after all, that is what it is all about.

What acoustic watch complications are there?

Watches with acoustic complications are in somewhat of a niche area in mechanical watchmaking, and for obvious reasons there aren’t too many of these complications out there. For this article, I wanted to both showcase some of these different types of watches which do make a sound, but also help you to hear them as well with a video. I hope you enjoy!

Repeater watches

Far and away my favourite type of watch complication is a repeater. I have written previously about minute repeaters here, so rather than rehash all this detail again I thought I would illustrate the different types of repeating mechanisms on an incredibly special watch – the Patek Philippe Grandmaster Chime (although the video later is unfortunately not of this!)

The Grandmaster Chime is a grand complication piece that was launched in 2014 to celebrate the 175^th anniversary of Patek Philippe, with only 7 pieces made – one of which resides in the Patek Philippe Museum in Geneva. As the name suggests it incorporates a great many chiming complications, including some firsts, too.

Of the 20 complications featured, there are five acoustic watch complications: a Grande and Petite Sonnerie, a minute repeater, a mechanical alarm with time strike, and a date repeater (the latter two complications were in fact patented by Patek Philippe in the creation of the Grandmaster Chime).

So, what do these complications do? The Grande and Petite Sonnerie chime automatically every 15 minutes. The Grande Sonnerie chimes the hours on the hour, and both the hours and quarters every quarter, whereas a Petite Sonnerie does the same, except it only chimes the quarters every quarter (omitting the hours).

A minute repeater is slightly different in that it is not an automatically chiming complication – this is instigated by the wearer normally by a slider on the side of the case, which generates the power required to chime the time. A minute repeater will chime the hours, the quarter hours, and then the minutes after the quarter.

For example, a time of 3:38 would be chimed by sounding 3 chimes (for 3 hours), then 2 chimes (for two quarters, or 30 minutes past), then 8 chimes (for the 8 minutes after the two quarters).

Two of the patented acoustic watch complications build on this premise. The alarm with time strike uses the same mechanism as the minute repeater in exactly the same way, to chime the time for which the alarm is set to (in addition to the alarm itself when it goes off) when instigated by the wearer.

The date repeater is also triggered by a pusher, and instead of chiming out the time the watch will chime out the date. The first set of chimes are in tens of days, with the remaining days chimed thereafter. For example, the 17^th of the month would be chimed by sounding 1 chime (for 10 days), then 7 chimes (for the 7 days after the ten).

What does a minute repeater sound like?

Patek Philippe are renowned for making the best-sounding repeater watches, with every single piece needing the personal approval of the President of the company before heading to any clients. Whilst I have never had the privilege of hearing a Patek Philippe chiming watch, I have had the absolute pleasure of listening to a fair few from other brands.

In this video, we can see a watch equally as rare as the Grandmaster Chime (well, technically one watch less rare – only 8 pieces of this reference were ever made). This is a Bulgari Commedia Dell’Arte automaton, cathedral-gong minute repeater, with jumping hours and retrograde minutes. You can hear the watch chiming out the time in the video below (sound on!), but also make sure you keep an eye on the characters on the right-hand side of the dial as well!

Mechanical alarm watches

Another niche within watchmaking is mechanical alarm watches. I have written about these previously here, exploring the history of the complication and some of the more famous mechanical alarm watches that there have been, so again I won’t go into the detail again for this article.

I think that mechanical alarm watches are the easiest way to come to own a watch with an audible complication, and in addition to those available in current collections across different brands, they are also relatively easy to find on the pre-owned market as well if you’re prepared to search for them as they have been around for a great many years – try searching for a Vulcain Cricket, Jaeger-LeCoultre Memovox, or Tudor Advisor and you’re sure to find a number of options available.

Indeed, Jaeger-LeCoultre in fact released a new Master Control Memovox recently so who knows, they might yet make a bit of a resurgence! The recent release even introduced a sapphire caseback at no detriment to the sound quality, so when the alarm sounds you can see the hammer going crazy as the alarm sounds.

What does a mechanical alarm complication sound like?

In this video you can see and hear the alarm on a boutique edition of the Master Control Memovox. As the hour hand passes the small white triangle on the dial (seen at 12 o’clock on the photo above), a hammer inside the watch sounds the alarm until the power is spent. This power is held in a second barrel in the movement, wound by the upper crown which is also used to set the alarm time, which can be set 11 hours and 59 minutes ahead of the current time.

I think the sound it creates has a beautiful tone, almost reminiscent of a school-bell, and certainly elevates the charm of the watch in my book! If you’re relying on it to wake you up in the morning though, you had better make sure you wind the main barrel as well to ensure the watch keeps ticking until the morning otherwise you might have an unintentional lay-in…

Music box complications

I imagine most of us will have memories of playing with a little music box at some point – winding up a cylinder adorned with little metal pins which rotates about its axis, which as it unwinds forces the pins to positively contact spokes of a comb of different lengths of metal, thus producing musical notes to play a tune. Which, of course, invariably slows down at the end to a gradual halt.

What is somewhat less common however is the convergence of this within a wristwatch, and perhaps unsurprisingly there aren’t very many brands which do it. At the more accessible end of the spectrum is a brand called Boegli, producing music box watches which chime out classical music from the likes of Chopin, Mozart and Beethoven.

Ulysse Nardin launched the ‘Stranger’ watch in 2013, which was limited to just 99 pieces, and chimed out the tune to Frank Sinatra’s Strangers in the Night.

Today, perhaps the most well-known music box watches are made by Jacob & Co, with their Godfather and Scarface watches.

Both these movies happen to be all-time favourites of mine, and whilst visiting Geneva last year I happened to catch sight of one of the Godfather watches on display. There was simply no way I would have forgiven myself had I left without trying it on!

Fortunately for me, the attendants in the store were more than happy to show me the watch and talk me through it in detail, the highlight of which was being able to try it on for size and enjoy the music box complication chiming out the iconic Godfather score. This was one of the absolute highlights of my trip for me, and I hope you enjoy hearing it in action, too!

In Summary

For me personally, there is something special about acoustic watch complications which chime or sound. As there aren’t many of them around, when you do come across one, they certainly offer an experience that you don’t get to enjoy very often, and so at least to me they tend to be particularly memorable.

In short, I find there to be a certain charm that you get with such a watch that you don’t get with others, and hopefully I’ve given you some insight into this through the article.

Whilst repeater watches, and watches from brands like Patek Philippe and Jacob & Co are priced inaccessibly to most folks, if acoustic watch complications strike a chord with you (pun intended), there are certainly some more affordable options out there, too.

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You might also be interested in:

• “It’s complicated”: an introduction to the Minute Repeater
• “It’s complicated”: an introduction to the Mechanical Alarm
• A Watch Aficionado’s Guide to Geneva Part 1 – Watch Shopping in Geneva
• Watch Stationery and Gift Ideas
• Watch Books, Watch Boxes and more at the Watch Affinity Shop on Amazon (commissions earned)

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