The minute repeater carillon is a mechanism of great complexity that strikes the hours, quarters and minutes on request. These indications are obtained by 3 hammer strokes on different gongs: a low pitched one for the hours; a high pitched one for the minutes and one intermediate pitch (the one that allows for a carillon effect on the quarter hours). Striking power is calculated to achieve subtle balance and, if this balance gets to be too strong, it would muffle the sound. But in case of being too weak, the sound would be inaudible. Audemars Piguet developed the first minute repeating mechanism for a wristwatch in 1985.
Repeater movements consist of tiny parts manufactured to extremely fine tolerances. During movement assembly, the watchmaker has to hand-finish many of these components to arrive at the desired result.
While minute repeaters chime hours, quarters and minutes on 2 gongs with 2 hammers, the present watch, part of “Jules Audemars” series, will chime the quarters with 3 hammers on 3 gongs, adding a further tone to the “dingdong” enchanted connoisseurs are so familiar with.
[Source: Audemars Piguet and Antiquorum's Magazine]
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