While most watch-wearers are familiar with chronographs and diving watches, there's one rarity worth adding to your collection. Chiming timepieces offer a newfound level of sophistication, adding new mechanics and an innovative time-keeping system into the mix.

What are Chiming Watches?

Like a cuckoo clock, chiming watches sounds the time. The chiming feature can be automatic or require manual intervention. The mechanics set off a series of gongs and bells with a slider or lever push, creating a cascade of beautiful sounds. If you need to buy a used Audemars Piguet, visit this website.

If you even have the chance to buy a used Audemars Piguet or other luxury brands, consider yourself lucky! Chiming watches are captivating accessories you can't help but love.

Chiming Watch Types

How you tell time with chiming watches can vary, but most use distinct tones to signify the hour, quarter-hour, and minute. Here are some of the most common varieties available.

Minute Repeaters

Minute repeaters typically have a manual lever to initiate the chime. These watches can indicate hours, quarter hours, and minutes with three different tones. Generally, you'll hear low tones for hours, double tones for quarter hours, and high-pitched tones for minutes.

Decimal Repeaters

Decimal repeaters are similar to minute repeaters. But instead of quarter hours, it uses tones to indicate 10-minute intervals. For example, to chime the time for 5:23, you'd hear five low tones for the hour, two tones for the ten-minute periods, and three tones for the minute.

Five-Minute Repeater

As you can guess from the name, this type of chiming watch ditches the 10-minute interval of the decimal repeater for five-minute periods. For example, 5:23 would have five low tones for the hour, four tones for the five-minute intervals, and three for the minutes.

Grand Sonneries

A Grand Sonnerie watch is automatic and doesn't use levers or slides. Its timing system is slightly different, using tones to only time the hour and quarter hours. Another unique feature is that the quarter-hour tone comes before the hour.

Petite Sonneries

This chiming watch only strikes the tones for the hours and quarter hours. However, the hour chimes only come on the dot. So, you would hear five chimes at 5:00. At 5:30, you'd hear two to indicate that two quarter-hours passed.

A Feast for the Eyes and Ears

Used Audemars Piguet and other luxury chiming watches are nothing short of inspiring. Not only are they beautifully and meticulously made, but the chimes add a new dimension that tickles the eardrums!

Read a similar blog about pre-owned watches here at this page.