Time in two melodies
When President & CEO Marc A. Hayek set Blancpain on a course to develop a grande sonnerie, he aimed higher than merely joining others who have produced this rarest of complications. In the same way that his passion for diving led him to revive the legendary Fifty Fathoms, his love for mechanics drove him to find and create the unprecedented.
Although it is standard to sound the time using two notes, he inspired Blancpain’s watchmakers to develop a grande sonnerie equipped with four notes. More than that and greatly increasing complexity, he wanted it to announce the time with the notes formed into a melody. Then the inspiration. Why not sound time with two different melodies played with four notes: the classic Westminster chime and an original composition penned by rock star Eric Singer of KISS? And then enable the selection of the two and switching back and forth via a push of a button on the case.
Seemingly impossible when the idea was spawned, the Grande Double Sonnerie has become a reality and a watchmaking first. This new Blancpain two melody grande sonnerie, petite sonnerie and minute repeater has been combined with a flying tourbillon and retrograde perpetual calendar, truly breaking new ground in the world of grand complications.
The most complicated watch in Blancpain’s history
An eight-year project encompassing 1,200 technical drawings, 21 patents developed during development (13 integrated into the final construction of the movement), 1,053 components for the movement, out of a total of 1,116 components, all entirely designed, produced, assembled, and decorated in-house.
WORLD PREMIERE
EXCEPTIONAL SOUND
RETROGRADE PERPETUAL CALENDAR
FLYING TOURBILLON
TRADITIONAL ARTISANAL FINISHING
Wristwatch grande sonnerie with two selectable melodies, chosen via a pusher on the case — the classic four-note Westminster chime and an original Blancpain melody composed by musician Eric Singer. Ultra-exclusive among wristwatch grande sonneries, it plays all four quarters on the hour, offering an extended performance.
Four notes (E, G, F, B) produced by four distinct hammers. An acoustic membrane integrated into the bezel enhances sound transmission, ensuring remarkable musical quality well beyond mere volume. Silent magnetic regulator.
Entirely reimagined with a new construction, fully integrated into the movement, and equipped with Blancpain’s patented under-lug correctors, redesigned to allow easy fingertip adjustment without tools.
Blancpain’s emblematic flying tourbillon — the world’s first, unveiled in 1989 — updated with a silicon balance spring and a 4 Hz frequency.
26 bridges and mainplate crafted in 18 ct gold. Traditional hand-finishing including anglage (135 inward angles), perlage, mirror polishing, diamond milling, and straight graining, all executed by hand in Blancpain’s finishing workshop in Le Brassus. Components are decorated on both visible and hidden surfaces.
« The Grande Sonnerie is one of the most difficult complications to create. It is the queen of watchmaking complications. I wanted a Grande Sonnerie that the owner could comfortably wear. Not an exercise that would merely reside in a safe. Two melodies with real musicality. And above all a watch that would make you smile as it sounds the time, that would trigger real emotion. With the elaborate sonnerie opened for view, to be admired as its four hammers sound its melodies, a gorgeous gold movement bursting with the innovations of its 13 incorporated patents and finishing taken to the maximum, we hope to touch the hearts of the most passionate connoisseurs. »
—Marc A. Hayek, CEO & President of Blancpain
Extensive Research & Development
An eight-year project encompassing 1,200 technical drawings, 21 patents developed during development (13 integrated into the final construction of the movement).
WHAT'S IN A MELODY ?
SELECT BETWEEN TWO MELODIES
MAGNETIC REGULATOR
MANUAL MICRO ADJUSTMENTS
VIBRATING MEMBRANE
To evolve from concept to musical perfection, Blancpain had to reimagine every acoustic dimension. The aim was not only to attain precise notes, but to orchestrate them in a perfectly steady tempo. In a binary chime, small shifts can remain imperceptible; in a melodic sequence, harmony tolerates no deviation. The gongs, crafted in gold after months of experimentation were chosen for their purity of resonance and their harmonic richness. Just as with the four tones, the intervals between each note are scientifically measured and the frequencies chosen not only had to match the four musical notes, they had to fall in the frequency range most easily heard.
In order to validate that, think of our concert master tuning the orchestra. Blancpain’s watchmakers make fine adjustments, on the order of microns and employ a laser to measure the frequencies accurately. Voila, the tuning of a grande sonnerie via means other than an oboe and first violin.
Blancpain's Grande Double Sonnerie takes the 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. Not only to sound four tones, each with its own dedicated hammer, but to enable two different selectable melodies to be played. The teeth of one of the pièce des quarts are dedicated to the Westminster melody, the teeth of the other to the Blancpain melody.
As close friend of Blancpain's President & CEO Marc A. Hayek and famed American drummer from hard rock band KISS, Eric Singer was the natural choice when Blancpain decided to equip the Grande Double Sonnerie with a second melody. Eric Singer's creative vision and Blancpain's horological mastery unite, giving rise to a unique Grand Complication and unforgettable collaboration.
There is a second imperative in the playing of a melody, distinct from the simple twotone sounding of time: perfect tempo. The human ear can detect irregularities as fine as a tenth of a second when listening to a melody. Like a minute repeater, the Grande Double Sonnerie is equipped with a regulator to govern the pace of the chiming. In this case, Blancpain has fitted the sonnerie with a patented magnetic regulator – a major advance over earlier designs. It is completely silent, adding no mechanical noise to compete with the chiming, and ensures greater stability of tempo than traditional constructions.
In Blancpain’s own laboratories, our engineers provide the analytical data and technical insights that guide the master watchmakers. With their traditional savoir-faire, they then make microscopic adjustments – on the order of a micron – to the shape of the teeth in the sonnerie mechanism. This collaboration between advanced technology and artisanal craftsmanship ensures a perfectly regular tempo, held within a tolerance of a tenth of a second.
Volume also was a focus of attention in development. To enhance the transmission of sound from the movement into the air, Blancpain’s designers conceived of a gold acoustic membrane fitted within the bezel. This construction is the subject of one of the 13 patents embodied in the Grande Double Sonnerie.
ERIC SINGER
A passionate watch collector and famed musician, Eric Singer is an American drummer best known for his long-standing association with the hard rock band KISS.
A close friend of Marc A. Hayek, Singer was the natural choice when Hayek decided to open a new frontier in watchmaking by equipping the Grande Double Sonnerie with a second melody. Singer composed an original piece specifically for the project, a completely new creative experience for him. In developing the composition, Singer collaborated closely with his friend and acclaimed keyboardist Derek Sherinian, whose musical insight and harmonic sense were integral to shaping the final melody. Together, they transformed the technical limitations of the movement into a unique musical signature for the timepiece.
Singer’s melody is labeled “Blancpain”. With the push of a button, the owner may select between either the Westminster or the Blancpain melody as the mood strikes. A smooth feel of the selection button that switches back and forth between the two is ensured as the mechanism is equipped with a column wheel.
« What really turned out to be a challenge was realizing there were only four notes available. That might sound like a lot for a watch, but for a musician, it’s an immense limitation. Turning that constraint into music was the real puzzle, and also what made this collaboration so fascinating for me and Derek. »
—Eric Singer
FINISHING
Fine finishing is a form of art and Blancpain has a finishing workshop in Le Brassus dedicated to its high complications. Here the full range of traditional finishing motifs and techniques are practiced by skilled craftsmen.
To highlight the beauty of their handwork, Blancpain selected 18 ct. gold for the Grande Double Sonnerie mainplate and bridges, a material that not only offers a stunning visual effect but also demands exceptional skill and patience as its softness makes it far more delicate to work with than traditional metals, leaving no room for error and requiring absolute mastery from the artisans. Not only does gold bring a unique warmth to the appearance of the movement, its polished surfaces glow more brilliantly than with brass or German silver more commonly used.
THE WATCHMAKERS
For a watchmaker, the world shrinks to micro dimensions…the loupe, the miniscule components, the workbench…the surroundings muted and blocked. For Romain and Yoann, the two watchmakers who bring the Grande Double Sonnerie to life, this des-cription has been only partially true. Each has been at Blancpain for more than a de-cade and each had devoted much of his career to working on minute repeaters. But assembling the more than 1000 components of the Grande Double Sonnerie has greatly expanded their universe. Pulling away from the insulation of loupe and bench, Romain and Yoann have been called upon not only to collaborate together but to join with the movement designers to refine the methods and delicate techniques to build the Grande Double Sonnerie.
What they confronted was so much more than the formidable challenges of a minute repeater. For a minute repeater there is great flexibility in both the tones and tempo; it is enough that sound be reasonably pleasant and regular. The Grande Sonnerie is world’s apart, for its two melodies demand pitch perfect notes and unprecedent precision of tempo. Moreover, unlike other grande complications, the movement construction was forbiddingly complex with all of its elements entirely integrated upon a single mainplate. There was no script, no formula, no tightly defined precedent to lead them onto the path to construction of this ground breaking timepiece. More than six months were devoted to developing the plan for assembly and, most importantly, the design and creation of special tools adapted to the myriad of tasks arrayed before them.
Every watch now represents nearly a full 12 months of work, each individually assembled from A to Z, beginning to end, by either Romain or Yoann. As each watchmaker finishes his timepiece, there comes a brief moment of private satisfaction and reward for the many months of labor; Romain or Yoann hand engraves his signature on the back of the gold Blancpain plaque and mounts it upon the movement he has built.
A WATCH DESIGNED TO BE WORN
SPECIAL PRESENTATION BOX
SAFETY MECHANISMS
ULTIMATE PERSONALIZATION
Despite the extreme complexity of the movement, the watch — which has passed all tests and certifications — remains highly wearable, with a diameter of 47 mm, a lug-tolug of 54.6 mm, and a thickness of 14.5 mm.
Crafted from wood sourced from the legendary Risoud forest in the Vallée de Joux, the case is more than a presentation box — it perpetuates the centuries-old tradition of resonance spruces, prized by luthiers for their exceptional acoustic qualities. In this spirit, it acts as a natural soundboard, amplifying the chime and linking the timepiece to the cultural and artisanal heritage of the valley.
Five safety systems integrated into the movement to prevent damage from incorrect handling.
Each piece can be custom-made according to the wishes of its owner, ensuring absolute exclusivity.