SAFETY

A true story (details omitted to protect the guilty). The locale: a major European city. The place: a famous upscale watch boutique fronting onto a renowned shopping street. The date: early 2000’s. The watch: a prestige minute repeater (NOT a Blancpain). The salesman: the shop’s owner well known and highly regarded throughout Europe and the US. Presenting the minute repeater, the experienced, sophisticated owner turned the crown while the watch was sounding. CLACK!! The watch broke. For sure, destined back to Switzerland for repair. The moral: lacking safety features, fiddling with the crown while the sonnerie was operating almost always will cause breakage. No matter how well versed an owner (or in this case a professional) may be, momentary forgetfulness may lead to misfortune.

A core value of Blancpain is safety, which in the context of a timepiece means protecting the movement from owner misuse, or, phrased with a less accusatory tone, forgetfulness. Applying this principle to the Grande Double Sonnerie, Blancpain has conceived of five separate sonnerie security features.

Adjustment of the time. When the sonnerie is operating, whether in grande, petite, or minute repeater mode, there is a clutch mechanism which operates so that the crown in time setting position is disengaged from the movement. The scene in our unnamed watch shop is prevented from occurring. A second related safety feature, when time is being set, the sonnerie not sounding, there is a small window displaying an icon with a bell and line striking across (the uniform symbol of “not available”) informing the owner that chiming is blocked.

The sonnerie winding barrel not sufficiently wound. The sonnerie has a winding barrel which is separate from that assigned to the regular running train of the watch. When the power reserve of the sonnerie barrel drops below a safe level, the sonnerie will not operate. The blocked symbol appears in the window.

Selection of the melody. When the sonnerie is sounding, the melody selection button is blocked. There is ­another safety feature for the reverse. When the melody selection button is being engaged, the sonnerie will not sound, even if the time passes a sounding moment.