TWO MELODIES

If you have ever been privileged enough to gaze upon the key elements of a minute repeater sounding the time, the spectacle is mesmerizing: components of a dizzying level of complexity “reading the time” from the running train of the watch, arming for the sounding, then launching into action unleashing the hammers. Of all the soundings, it is the quarters, more than the hours or minutes, that steal the scene. For it is the quarters that engage all the hammers, which in the case of almost all repeaters, number but two.

Blancpain’s Grande Double Sonnerie takes that degree of extraordinary complication and multiplies it, as it engages four hammers for the quarters in all of its sounding modes: grande, petite, and répétition. How then did Blancpain take it further? Not only to sound four tones, each with its own dedicated hammer, but to enable two different selectable melodies to be played. Said another way, how in the confines of a wristwatch case already teeming with a magnitude of complexity at the very limits of horological achievement with the playing of one four note melody, could a second melody be added? Where is there space to fit in components for melody number 2?

Gazing at the movement does little to solve the riddle. The pièce des quarts, the key component for sounding the quarters is visible, but only the most astute observer, aided by a loop, could tease out the secret. There are, in fact, two pièces des quarts which are solidly attached together, one on top of the other, each with its own set of teeth. Recall for the sounding of a note, that it is the teeth of the pièce des quarts striking the arms of the levées which, in turn, activate the attached hammers, which then strike the gongs. The teeth of one of the pièce des quarts are dedicated to the Westminster melody, the teeth of the other to the Blancpain melody. How then to select which melody will be played and the related question, how to switch back?

The answer lies with construction of the four levées. Each is fitted with arms at two different levels, corresponding, of course, to the two levels of the pièces des quarts. The genius to enable the selection and switching of the melodies is a mechanism called the bascules de changement de mélodie (melody changing rocker). Controlled by a column wheel which is positioned by the user when the melody selection button is pushed, the bascules rotate the arms of each of the levées so that arms are placed at a level of one of the pièces des quarts (melody no. 1) allowing its teeth to come into contact when a sounding occurs and, at the same time, rotating the other arms of each of the levées into a position so that the teeth of the other pièces des quarts (melody no. 2) will freely pass by out of reach. Said another way, the Westminster melody on the quarter hours is played using the teeth and arms at one level; the Blancpain melody with teeth and arms at the other level.

There are times when true genius discovers simplicity within what appears to be forbidding complexity. So it is with Blancpain’s two melody system for the Grande Double Sonnerie.