Make Your Own Kind of Music
The most frequent and charming tale that you’ll hear about chiming complications, whether you’re a gifted collector or new to this industry, is that it was specially devised as a way to tell the time at night, before piped gas and electricity were conveniently available to most. There’s no truth to this cherubian tale, unfortunately. Chiming clocks had existed for ages, in part to indicate the time for those who could not afford a pocket watch of their own, and as watchmaking improved and miniaturised, became a challenge for watchmakers to develop within pocket watches and mantel clocks, et al. The minute repeater was both a demonstration of a watchmaker’s talent, and a status symbol for the elite who could command such a commission.
Making a minute repeater today is a challenge of significant proportions; what more watchmakers of old who worked without the assistance of laser-guided machining equipment or CAD/CAM software to design each and every component of
