Chapter 2Our Complications
In horology, a complication refers to any feature in a timepiece beyond the simple display of hours, minutes, and seconds. At Ademars Piguet we have spent over 137 years mastering these unique creations from design through production.
It takes ingenuity and precision to strike the perfect chord. The watchmaker will spend as long as required to ensure that the cadence of the strike is neither too fast nor too slow, and exactly equal on both hammers. Gongs will be tuned in order to play the clearest possible note. These fine-tuning operations involved in the crafting of repeater watches mean that at the end of the day each timepiece is entirely unique and cannot be replicated.
Gongs are tuned in order to play the clearest possible note and multiple pitches are individually perfected. These fine-tuning operations involved in the crafting of repeater watches mean that each timepiece is entirely unique and cannot be replicated.
An Audemars Piguet First
1892 Audemars Piguet presents the first wristwatch equipped with a minute repeater function.
The first great specialty of watchmakers in the Joux Valley was the production of watches that chimed, telling the time in music. Jules Audemar's father and grandfather made these mechanisms. Therefore it was natural that Audemars Piguet devoted much of its output to such watches right from the start, perfecting a complication that often has more than 400 components.
This complication comprises the greatest number of parts, often more than 400. The minute repeater sounds the time by hammers hitting hardened steel gongs. It indicates, on request, the hours by a series of strikes on the low-pitched gong, quarter hours by striking the low/high-pitched gong and additional minutes in relation to the latest quarter hour by striking the high-pitched gong.
- 2 or 3
The number of gongs and hammers tuned to perfection by ear.
The century the repeater was invented. Created to hear the time, rather than look at your watch, after the sun went down.
- up to548
Number of components within this complication.
How It Works
Telling Time By Ear
The minute repeater strikes on request the hours (low-pitched tone), quarter hours (two different tones) and minutes (high-pitched tone).Hear what 12:51 sounds like