fascinating mechanisms that make time fly!

[caracarnj]

BESIDES telling the time, perpetual calendar watches report the day of the week, the date, the month and (usually, though not always) the phase of the moon as well - from small sub-dials or windows set into the watch face.

A series of intricate mechanisms help to automatically adjust for the different number of days in different months, and can even recognise the Feb 29 of leap years. No computer chips or batteries, but lots of little gear teeth.

Repeaters

A watch with a repeater mechanism is usually among the most rare, and thus the most expensive of pieces in a watchmaker's product range. Inside the watch case, hammers hit gongs to sound the hours, quarters and minutes in musical tones of different pitches.

These are normally made in men's versions, but Audemars Piguet has made a smaller ladies' version as well.

Variations are as follows, in ascending order of complexity:

Quarter repeaters: A low-pitched gong is struck for each hour, and a ting-tang combo of low and treble tones for each quarter-hour.

Five-minute repeaters: The first version sounds the hours with a base tone, and counts each five-minute period with a treble tone.

The second type has the first two tones, but adds the ting-tang combo for each quarter-hour as well.

Minute repeaters:

These are more precise. When activated, they count right down to the minute - base tone for the hours, ting-tang for the quarters, then a treble note for each minute elapsed. This year's example from FP Journe shows off a minute repeater hammer between 9 and 10 o'clock.

If the time is 3.20, for example, the delighted listener will hear three base tones (3 o'clock), one ting-tang combo (for 15 minutes), and then five treble notes (to add another five minutes).

A recent innovation by Finnish watchmaker Kari Voutilainen replaces the quarters with 10-minute segments, and has been accordingly christened the decimal repeater.

Grande sonnerie:

In addition to providing minute repeater functions on request, these also announce the hours and quarters en passant - automatically - like a grandfather clock. A push-piece at the side of the watch usually makes it possible to automate only the striking of the hours (petite sonnerie), or silence automatic soundings altogether.

Carillon repeaters:

The additional feature here is that three gongs, sounding a combination of three different musical tones, announce the quarters. Some can play different tunes for different quarters, the most popular being the Westminster chimes. These have been known to have as many as four gongs.

Split-second chronographs

A chronograph is basically a timepiece with stop-watch functions. A split-second (rattrapante in French) chrono, on the other hand, has two central stop-watch hands, one lying on top of the other, which can time two events of different durations simultaneously.

At the start of a swim, for example, both hands move in unison. The fly-back hand can then be stopped to record the time taken to complete each lap, while the second stop-watch hand continues to run.

After noting successive lap times, a push-piece is hit to make the fly-backhand catch up with the second stop-watch hand. This can continue until the swim is completed, the total time recorded, and both hands re-set to zero.

This year, Girard-Perregaux introduced a watch which not only shows off the two large blue rattrapante hands, but goes beyond that.

The red hand at 9 o'clock is a foudroyante hand, which means it whizzes around at a dizzy speed in order to measure time down to one-sixth of a second.

Two years ago, we even witnessed the advent of split-minute on top of split-seconds, thanks to the German watchmaking firm of A Lange & Sohne. This makes it possible to simultaneously time two laps or events which have durations longer than a minute.

Last year, in honour of the America's Cup Race hosted by Spain, we saw a series of chronos which incorporated 10-minute countdown timers for yacht races.

Tourbillons

THIS is another expensive complication, with a whole multitude of brands showing off their latest variations of the standard anti-gravity theme in recent years.

The mechanism adjusts for the negative effects of gravity. It harks back to the time when stop-watches rested in a fixed position in the waist pockets of their owners. It consists of a mobile cage which contains the escapement - the oscillating part of the timepiece.

This mobile cage makes one revolution per minute, thus cancelling out any oscillation errors that the escapement might make as a result of lying in a fixed position for a long period of time - which was often the case for pocket watches lying in vest pockets of the gentry of yore.

These days, more and more watchmakers have updated the tourbillon complication to cater for modern wristwatches, with cages that revolve on two or even three axes - rather than on a single plane or angle.

[siesta181]

Hey Cara,

Thanks for all the effort. Wouldn't it be great if the chinese can come up with a minute repeater. I'd be the first to buy.... One can dream!!!

Cheers

Siesta

[caracarnj]

Ha ha!!! Yup, dream on bro!

[doc savage]

You can get a Japanese minute repeater for $300 or so, sort of.

[caracarnj]

You can get a Japanese minute repeater for $300 or so, sort of.

Doc, your watch is value for $ and great looking. And it's gen!!!