The birth of the Minute Repeater mechanism

In the high-end watch world, Minute Repeater is like the ultimate goal of a race called 'Complex Mechanism' with many leading brands.

Learn the birth of the clock alarm clock mechanism

Once upon a time, it was probably from the time when the wall clock, table, or corner was the only thing capable of giving people ideas of time and concepts. 'See now' actually exists in the form of 'listening'. That being said, from the complex Greek and Roman ancient watches to Su Song's astronomical clock (China, completed in 1088) and to the towers Renaissance watches in monasteries, bell-hour-hours are still a common way for a watch to inform people about the time. So now there is no shortage of clock-bell-savvy people who are 'watch-to-watch' or 'clock-watch' . Even in a watch-related magazine, the introduction of this wristwatch line began with the fact that watchmakers discovered clock towers could allow people to know even now. when not (or incapable) looking at the clock due to darkness or handicap.

In fact, almost all the first wristwatches can ring the bell. At the end of the 15th and early 16th centuries, watch clocks hit the hour-striking clock and alarm watches appeared for the first time. It must be said that before electric lights, and especially safety matches, the bell watches in this way have brought initial convenience to those who want to know the time at night. But - maybe without the word 'but ' humanity won't be able to have so many good things - no one wants to keep their eyes open in the dark just to wait until the next hour, then hurry up and count A total of how many decks to know the time. What if I accidentally forgot to sleep or missed the wrong count? Wait until the next hour to hurry and hurry to hear some bells? Trouble seems to begin to arise.

According to records, in the 17th century, there were two genius inventors in England. One was a monk named Edward Barlow , the other was the famous watchmaker Daniel Quare. These two people have almost invented a repeat mechanism - 'repeating' and all patents are registered. However, in 1687, King James II gave Quare a patent. Simply because Quare's invention is more practical and effective than Barlow's invention. While Barlow's invention requires two parts to press the button to operate (one for the hour and one for the hour), Quare's invention requires only one part to ring the bell for both the alarm and the minute. This difference is too obvious!

But people are greedy! In technology this is even more true. In 1710, Samuel Watson shocked the world with the introduction of an alarm clock mechanism that was accurate to 5 minutes. Earlier bell watches often had the wrong number of 15 minutes. But that's not the end! 31 years later, in 1741, a Frenchman named Antonie Thiout once again made the world surprised by the introduction of the hourly alarm clock mechanism. The race for a bell-ringing mechanism is now stopped here. And all of a sudden for the first time in more than 50 years, one has to turn to ask: 'Eh, how does the operation of the mechanism corresponding to this mechanism look or not look right?' .

Perhaps all of the studies, the patents will have to either be put in the trash, or put in the pantry, or change the pillowcase of the headboard if there is no Thomas Mudge . To 'listen' to the time from the alarm clock, a person will click on a sliding lever (invented by Thomas Mudge) installed on the belt of the watch case. This slide will immediately cause the mechanism to ring the bell to work, hitting the small gongs - the gongs - inside. Usually a clock that rings a bell now has two gongs. A high-pitched one and a low-pitched one. For example, with the time of 2:35, the watch will hit two high-pitched bells - nails, nails. (Each nail is considered an hour). Next are two chords of high-pitched sounds combined with low-pitched soundstones - nails and nails. (Each pin is counted as 15 minutes). Finally, nails, nails, nails, nails, nails - all 5 hours. (Each sound is considered a minute).

In fact, the bell ticking clock not only has the type of bell chime. The sophistication, sophisticated, cleverness of the watch is like a cradle so that the creators can wear and sublimate. One of the creations that can be considered the pinnacle of sophistication - I myself, I appreciate this creation on all the other technical innovations of watchmaking - is the alarm clock '. mute ' . This watch is the creation of Abraham Louis Breguet . Both now and then, people consider watching watches when receiving guests as one of the very disrespectful things facing people. So Breguet created a watch so that every time you slide the bell, the bell ring instead of hitting the gong and making the sound of whips, it will hit a part of the watch and produce short vibrations. Different lengths. These vibrations touching the wearer's hands will purposely tell them what time it is now.

Finally, above all, the quality and the timelessness of the clock alarms make them not shy about the uncertainty of the economy. (Just like watches with legendary tourbillon parts. You won't believe your eyes when reading the information after a tour of Speake-Marin tourbillon and minute repeater costs $ 500,000, or a watch minute repeater and the perpetual calendar of Vacheron Constantin costs $ 460,000). They are indeed rare items only for professional collectors. Perhaps with these sophisticated players, the clock alarms clocked to the minute to give them special interests, the enjoyment of listening to the sounds - complex sounds but sophistication of an entity by . mechanical.