Ulysse Nardin & Striking Watches

Ulysse Nardin was one of the earliest manufacturers to fuel the rebirth of the minute repeater and remains the only manufacture in the world to use jaquemarts on the dial of its minute repeaters.

Picture of an Hourstriker Horse with hosring material in the back

A journey rooted in the 18th century

Minute repeaters were initially created for a affluent clientele to tell time in the dark.

Back in the 18th century, if you were a man of substance, you wouldn't deign to step out of your warm bed to stumble around in the dark like a common bumpkin looking for matches, lighting a candle and checking the time on your pocket watch.

What you would do is press the slide of your minute repeater and your watch would play out the time for you.

Hourstriker Phantom lying on a white sphere

Hourstriker and "Sonnerie en Passant"

In addition to minute repeaters ; hour strikers which strike only the hour; and quarter repeaters that strike out the hours and quarters, but not the minutes ; there are also watches called "sonneries" which, unlike minute or quarter repeaters, do not have to be armed to play the time for you.

A "sonnerie en passant" will ring out the time in passing. Ulysse Nardin's Hourstriker is a sonnerie en passant in that it can either play the hour on demand or be set to ring out the time in passing.

Minute repeaters are universally considered some of the most difficult watches to create. While the strike train – comprised of a separate strike barrel, regulator, racks, snail cams, strikes, hammers and gongs – is complex, it is not this complexity that is the greatest challenge in creating a superb repeater. The real challenge is related to sound quality. A repeater’s song comes from the vibration of the gong when struck by the hammer and is amplified by the watch case. A repeater is as much a musical instrument as it is a timekeeper.

Picture of the San Marco Clock Tower in Venice

A STORY YOU COULDN'T MAKE UP

Ulysse Nardin has over 30 years’ expertise in manufacturing striking watches. The first hourstriker invented by Ulysse Nardin already sounded like an ode to romanticism. In fact, it was created by Rolf Schnyder in 1992 following a romantic trip to Venice.

During this visit, Rolf Schnyder, the visionary Swiss-german entrepreneur, was strolling through St. Mark’s Square with his wife when the iconic Clock Tower caught his eye. Enthralled by the Automatons atop the tower, which strike the time, Rolf envisioned incorporating a similar mechanism into Ulysse Nardin's striking watches.

The result was the San Marco Minute Repeater, where the two "Moors" of the bell tower—the "old man" and the "young man"—were faithfully replicated on the dial as animated jaquemarts, striking the bell and bringing the watch to life.