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The Encyclopedia of Horology

Watch family · Complication

Repeating Watches

Verified

Watches that sound the time acoustically on demand via a slide or pusher, striking hours and subdivisions on gongs, retaining the essential mechanism of pocket repeaters in miniature.

Movement & mechanism

  • Rack-and-snail mechanism reading the time and determining the number of blows struck
  • Miniaturised gongs coiled around the movement, replacing the bells used in larger pocket repeaters
  • Activating slide or pusher in the case band charging the striking train independently of the going train

Identification

  • A slide in the case band, distinct from the crown
  • Visible or audible striking mechanism when activated
  • Often combined with other complications (minute repeater chronographs, for example) in the finest examples

Terminology

  • Minute repeater — striking hours, quarters and minutes on demand
  • Quarter repeater — striking hours and quarters only

Known variations

  • Quarter repeater
  • Five-minute repeater
  • Minute repeater

Pocket-watch ancestry

Repeating mechanisms were invented and refined for pocket watches from the late seventeenth century; wristwatch repeaters required substantial re-engineering to fit the far smaller case, but the acoustic and rack-and-snail principles are unchanged.

Collecting notes

One of the most prestigious and expensive complications to miniaturise successfully for the wrist; acoustic quality and finishing are central to valuation.

Related photographs

Prim mechanical wrist watch disassembled part 1
Prim mechanical wrist watch disassembled part 1 — Kozuch, CC BY-SA 3.0. Wikimedia Commons file page
Prim mechanical wrist watch disassembled part 2
Prim mechanical wrist watch disassembled part 2 — Kozuch, CC BY-SA 3.0. Wikimedia Commons file page
Mechanical wristwatch
Mechanical wristwatch — Petar Milošević, CC BY-SA 3.0. Wikimedia Commons file page

No confidently matched photograph of this subject has been found yet. These photographs show a closely related record, and are not examples of the type described on this page.

Sources & references

  1. Chamberlain, P. M., It's About Time

Where sources disagree, the disagreement is stated rather than resolved silently.