Imagine for a moment that it’s the late 18th century: there are no electric lights, no wristwatches and certainly no smartphones. Once the sun sets, the only way to discern the time on your pocket watch or wall clock is with a candle.
“Chiming” watches were developed to remedy this problem. By including a striking mechanism — a set of miniature gongs and some sort of acoustic membrane — these timepieces audibly indicate the time, allowing one to ascertain the hour in total darkness, or if one can’t see at all.
Abraham-Louis Breguet — an ever-present name in late 18th and early 19th-century horology — was an early pioneer in such striking mechanisms, improving their reliability and acoustic quality and combining them with other complications. By 1892, Audemars Piguet in conjunction with Louis Brandt & Frère (which would later become Omega) succeeded in miniaturizing a repeating mechanism into wristwatch form, ushering in the era of the modern chiming watch; the mechanism is generally activated via a slide built into the case flank.
Today, chiming watches from large, historic Swiss firms are some of the most expensive timepieces on the market. Due to their inherent complication and the difficulty in producing their movements, they often begin in the mid-five-figure range and tip over into the seven-figure range for certain grande sonneries and grand complications. However, other brands as of late have been opening the door to striking watches through the clever use of modules that fit atop commonly available, off-the-shelf Swiss movements. These, of course, aren’t as complicated or as sophisticated as those developed in-house (and completely from the ground up) by brands such as Patek Philippe and Audemars Piguet, but they allow collectors to own chiming watches for under $10,000, which is in itself a sort of revelation.
The terminology surrounding chiming watches can be confusing, and it’s worth taking a moment to delineate the different types of repeating mechanisms in common use in the 21st century. (Other types were in common use over the past 200 years, but are less common today.)
Types of Repeating and Chiming Watches
Minute Repeater: This sophisticated mechanism can be activated at will to audibly chime the time down to the nearest minute using a mix of different pitches. (That is, one pitch for the hours, one for the quarter hours and one for the minutes.) Other types of less expensive repeaters might only repeat the hours or quarters.
En Passant: A simpler mechanism that strikes automatically only at the top of each hour.
Petite Sonnerie: Chimes at the top of each hour, and then the quarter hours without repetition of the hours. Unlike a minute repeater, the chiming is done automatically.
Grande Sonnerie: Chimes both the hours and the quarter hours automatically. (Can also generally switch to petite sonnerie and silent modes.) This is the most sophisticated chiming mechanism in production, with prices safely in the high-six to seven figures.
12 Excellent Minute Repeaters and Other Chiming Watches
In the fall of 2022, British brand Christopher Ward released the Bel Canto, the most affordable Swiss-made chiming watch on the market. Futuristic and inspired, it utilizes a chiming module atop an automatic Sellita base movement to sound once at the top of every hour — not the stuff of minute-repeating haute horlogerie, perhaps, but incredibly impressive considering its price point. The Lumière version takes the futurism to fresh heights, adding a glowing Globolight ring, plenty of Super-LumiNova and a cool aquamarine-colored platine. Paired to a white Aquaflex lume rubber strap, it has a funky and fearless look all its own.
It’s within the Grand Complications that one truly discovers Patek Philippe’s mastery of complicated watchmaking. The white gold, 42mm ref. 5308G-001 combines a minute repeater, a split-seconds chronograph and an instantaneous perpetual calendar in an automatic watch with a platinum microrotor. Featuring an ice-blue sunburst dial, it displays a wealth of calendar and timing information — time, day, date, month, moonphase, leap year, day/night, 60-minute counter, 12-hour counter — without seeming crowded. The cal. R CHR 27 PS QI, meanwhile, features some 799 parts and the Patek Philippe seal.
The Best Skeleton and Openworked Watches
These fascinating pieces give a glimpse inside a watch as it’s working
Combining a minute repeater and a perpetual calendar, this handsome edition of 30 pieces is by no means a small watch. At 43mm in white gold with a case height of nearly 14mm, it requires a substantial wrist. However, the blue guilloché dial is nothing short of a revelation. Crafted upon a gold disc, it features hand-applied sunray and clous de Paris patterns that take between two to three days to fabricate. The Jaeger-LeCoultre cal. 950 automatic movement within boasts specially designed gongs that take advantage of the watch’s case architecture to deliver rich tones, while the whole package is finished with a handsome blue alligator leather strap.
A. Lange & Söhne proudly advertises that its Zeitwerk Minute Repeater is “the first mechanical wristwatch with a jumping numerals display and a decimal minute repeater.” But what does that mean, exactly? A decimal minute repeater chimes the hours, 10-minute intervals and individual minutes, while a jumping hour display shows the hours within a window that “jumps” instantaneously as the hour changes. Contained within the confines of a beautiful platinum case and a cleanly designed dial, the Zeitwerk Minute Repeater draws upon well over a century of German watchmaking tradition to present one of the handsomest minute repeaters on the market.
One could almost mistake the Audemars Piguet Code 11.59 Minute Repeater Supersonnerie for a simple time-only watch — before its full complement of features and charms reveal themselves. Measuring 41mm in pink gold and black ceramic, it uses satin and polished finishes in combination with a set of openworked lugs for a dynamic look. The smoked sapphire dial, meanwhile, gives the wearer a window into the hand-wound cal. 2953 within, whose 362 components, perlage decoration and gold-tone gears are visible beneath the watch’s applied indices and matching handset.
If your tastes lean more toward the avant-garde, you’d do well to check out Bulgari’s Octo Finissimo Minute Repeater. At just 6.85mm tall in sandblasted titanium, it features a dark grey-blue dial with cutaway numerals, allowing sound from the 3.12mm-thick Bulgari cal. BVL362 hand-wound movement to pass through from the back of the case. Paired to an FKM rubber bracelet with a titanium clasp and boasting 50m of water resistance, it’s among the most modern-looking and feeling of the repeating wristwatches on this list, with idiosyncratic case architecture that references Roman architecture and a movement designed to be unobtrusive.
Released in 2022, the Omega Speedmaster Chrono Chime contains the brand’s most complicated movement to date, the Co-Axial Master Chronometer Calibre 1932. This hand-wound engine powers not only a split-seconds chronograph, but also a wildly sophisticated repeater device that chimes the chronograph’s elapsed time. Contained within a 45mm Sedna Gold case, it features a blue aventurine grand feu enamel dial with handsome Sedna Gold “acoustic wave” subdials. But as beautiful as the dial is, the caseback is where most of the action takes place; flip the watch over, and the stunning cal. 1932 is visible in all its glory.
Oftentimes, the simplest form is also the most elegant. Such is certainly the case with respect to Breguet’s Classique Répétition Minutes 7637, a minute repeater that strips the complication down to its essence. Housed within a 42mm rose gold case with officer-style lugs and a smooth bezel, it features a deep black grand feu enamel dial with rose gold Breguet hands and applied Breguet indices. Powered by the Breguet cal. 567.2 hand-wound movement, the minute repeater function is activated by way of a discrete slide located on the left-hand case flank, while a black alligator leather strap with a three-blade deployant buckle completes the package.
Despite a long history of manufacturing classic marine chronometers, Ulysse Nardin is a brand that isn’t afraid to push the technological and aesthetic envelope. The Blast Hourstriker — a 45mm avant-garde repeater constructed from a mix of titanium and gold with black PVD surfaces — looks like nothing else on the market. An openworked dial allows a clear view of the Ulysse Nardin cal. UN-621 automatic movement, whose 366 components include an intricate system of gongs, a dedicated barrel for the repeater complication and a flying tourbillon. Able to chime the hours and half hours on demand, it’s activated via dual pushers on the left-hand case flank.
The most complicated watch ever developed by Chopard, the L.U.C Grand Strike includes a grande sonnerie, a petite sonnerie and a minute repeater, while its cal. L.U.C 08.03-L hand-wound movement is certified with both the Poinçon de Genève and the Contrôle Officiel Suisse des Chronomètres (COSC). Contained within a 43mm 18K white gold case, it features a transparent dial and sapphire caseback through which it’s possible to view the movement, including dual polished steel hammers, a 60-second tourbillon and a selector mode for switching between Grande Sonnerie (G), Petite Sonnerie (P) and Silence (S) modes.
While it can be difficult to break into the world of repeating watches for less than, well, tens of thousands of dollars, German watchmaker MeisterSinger has figured out a way to open the door for around $5,000. Its Bell Hora isn’t a traditional minute repeater, but rather a “Sonnerie au Passage”: When activated via a special pusher, it chimes the hours at the start of each hour. By utilizing a special module in conjunction with the workhorse Sellita SW200 automatic movement, the price is kept reasonable, while a cool petrol green dial and left-hand configuration help this “U.S. Edition” stand out even further. The single timekeeping hand, meanwhile, features just enough resolution to get you through your day on time.
Created in two colorways — Dawn Rose and Midnight Fjord — Parmigiani Fleurier’s spectacular L’Armoriale Répétition Mystérieuse harks back to an age in which the repeating watch fulfilled a specific, utilitarian remit — namely, to indicate the time when there was no electric light by which to read the dial. Fitted with a beautiful guilloché outer dial and housed within an engraved and enameled 41.6mm white gold case, it features a secret inner dial in which dual peripheral indicators display the hours and minutes. The hand-wound Parmigiani Fleurier cal. PF355 takes care of timekeeping, while an included, bespoke resonator case amplifies the watch’s sound.
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