Complication profile - the repeater

A repeater is a complication in a mechanical watch that makes a sound, usually a chime, when the hands hit each hour, quarter hour or minute. Their initial function was to allow the wearer to tell time in the dark, when electricity was sparse. This was also before the introduction of illuminated hands. Repeaters were also a big help for blind people who couldn't see the watch.

Today, a repeater is mainly a novelty item prized by enthusiasts. The most complicated watches today often still include a repeater.

Types of repeaters

There are 7 types of repeater. They each have the same function, but chime at different intervals.

1. Hour repeater

The hour repeater is usually just called a "repeater" or simple repeater. The way it works is that when the button is pressed, the repeater chimes for each hour that has passed since the 12 o'clock. It typically does not differentiate between morning and night.

2. Quarter repeater

This repeater is a bit more complicated than the simple repeater. In addition to striking the number of hours, it also strikes the number of quarter hours since the last hour, and uses 2 different sounding chimes to achieve this.

3. Half-quarter repeater

A step up from the quarter repeater, the half-quarter repeater chimes to 7.5 minutes or half a quarter hour. How it does this is by striking the hours and quarter hours, much like the quarter repeater, but it goes further by signaling when more than half of the current quarter hour has passed.

4. Five-minute repeater

The five-minute repeater chimes the hours and each five minute period since the current hour has passed.

5. Minute repeater

Similarly to the quarter repeater, the minute repeater sounds the hours, quarter hours and then each minute that has passed since the last quarter hour.

6. Grande sonnerie

This is basically a mechanism that strikes quarters witha repeater. Every quarter hour, the grande sonnerie makes a sound on the hour and each quarter of that hour.

7. Dumb repeater

The dumb repeater was mainly used by people with difficulty hearing or by people who wanted quiet time reminders. Dumb repeaters worked like other repeaters but vibrated instead thanks to a kind of hammer inside the case.