Blancpain Unveils The Grande Double Sonnerie, Its Most Complicated Watch Ever
6 min read
In 1981, Jacques Piguet and Jean-Claude Biver bought the remnants of the old Blancpain company for 22,000 Swiss Francs. What was then just a box full of design copyrights, a few tools and essentially just a name, proved to be a watchmaker of distinct competence soon after its revival. Its earliest exhibit of that competence was the creation of six mechanical watches with traditional complications, now popular as the brand’s “six masterpieces.”
The last of these six masterpieces was the Ref. 0023 of 1989, the world’s first and thinnest flying tourbillon wristwatch developed with the help of Vincent Calabrese. Just a year later in 1990, Blancpain introduced the Grand Complication 1735, the brand’s first grand complication timepiece. It combined a perpetual calendar, moonphase, split-seconds chronograph, tourbillon, and minute repeater in an ultra-thin movement.
The above is essential not only in regards to broader horological legitimacy, but also as an assertion to the fact that in the case of Blancpain, it’s very important to focus on the elements that go beyond the Fifty Fathoms. While the said watch has, in many ways, consumed the brand’s image, it is Blancpain’s exploits in mechanical complexity that define its true watchmaking depth. That’s the kind of prowess for which the brand is not, but should be known.
And it all culminates in the new Grande Double Sonnerie Ref. 15GSQ, the most complicated watch in Blancpain’s history.
A Vision Born Of Uncompromising Ambition
The journey began when Blancpain President & CEO Marc A. Hayek challenged the status quo: rather than settling for the rarest of complications, he sought something that had never been done - a wristwatch grande sonnerie with a four-note melody. Not content with tradition, Mr. Hayek pushed for two distinctive musical scores: the classic Westminster chime and an original Blancpain melody composed by musician Eric Singer, renowned rock drummer of KISS and a passionate watch enthusiast. Wearers can select their preferred tune, chosen via a pusher - a world first in the realm of grande sonneries.
Here’s how Mr. Hayek expressed this ingenious creation, “The Grande Sonnerie is one of the most difficult complications to Create. It is the queen of watchmaking complications”. He further added, “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.”
Acoustic Perfection and Mechanical Ingenuity
At the core of this extraordinary watch is a constellation of horological complications, fused into an entirely integrated movement. Here’s a list of what the watch offers:
Grande Sonnerie & Petite Sonnerie: Unlike minute repeaters that chime on demand, a grande sonnerie sounds the hours and quarters automatically as time passes. Blancpain elevates this with not just the usual two-note chime but a full four-note melody, delivered by separate hammers for each note. The melody’s tempo is governed by a silent magnetic regulator resulting in only pure resonant sound.
Minute Repeater: Activated on demand and further enriching the acoustic diversity is the minute repeater complication. Here, it achieves unprecedented clarity thanks to a gold acoustic membrane embedded within the bezel which is one of thirteen patents secured in this remarkable endeavor.
Flying Tourbillon: Blancpain’s signature innovation, the flying tourbillon, originally developed in 1989 for the brand by Vincent Calabrese, has been upgraded with a 4Hz silicon balance spring. It now offers enhanced resistance to magnetism, better precision, and a visually arresting mechanical motion thanks to its mirror-polished surfaces and decorated cage.
Retrograde Perpetual Calendar: Entirely redesigned from scratch, unlike typical modular calendar plates, this feature of the new Blancpain Grande Double Sonnerie Ref. 15GSQ is fully integrated into the movement, preserving its open architecture. Its patented under-lug correctors are now movement-integrated for super-easy, tool-free adjustments, again a world first.
The Inside Story
This complicated masterpiece is the result of eight years of relentless innovation, creative problem-solving, and artisan dedication culminating from over 1,200 technical drawings, 1053 movement components, and 13 patents. Twin barrels with bi-directional winding of the caliber 15GSQ independently power the timekeeping geartrain and the musical functions, ensuring lasting and reliable performance without any compromises. The watch features five integrated mechanisms to prevent user mishandling, safeguarding every petite element of this record-breaking machine.
Superlative Sounds And Materials
Beyond the mechanics, Blancpain is obsessed over sound. The four hammers play not just in harmony but with acoustical perfection, each note laser-tuned within microscopic tolerances. The gold sound rings and acoustic membrane ensure not just loudness but clarity and richness. The said was very much evident from our first hands-on experience with this remarkable masterpiece.
A Collaboration With Rock Legends
When it came to the original melody, Eric Singer and keyboard maestro Derek Sherinian transcended challenging horological constraints to produce a musical piece that radiates a distinct acoustic aura. With just four notes available, the result is a melody as technically ingenious as the mechanism it celebrates and more mesmerizingly, switchable with the traditional Westminster chime at the press of a column-wheel-fitted pusher at 9 o’clock for effortless musical mood alteration.
Singer noted the immense challenge of the medium by remarking, “When the Blancpain team shared with me the technical specifications of the watch, I didn’t understand a single word of what was in there,” he joked. Further stating, “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”.
Haute Finishing As Pure Art
The Grande Double Sonnerie’s caliber 15GSQ movement has the mainplate as well as its 26 bridges hand-crafted in 18 ct gold. Every visible, and even the hidden, surface receives equal levels of attention and hand finishing hallmarked by decorations such as anglage with overly-impressive 135 sharp interior angles, perlage, mirror polishing, diamond milling, and more.
Decorating a caliber of such staggering complexity by hand requires an unreal level of attention and artisanal competence. With gold not being the best material to decorate at such an intricate level, owing to its softness, the resulting levels of decoration that peak in this masterpiece are a testament to the watchmaker’s levels of skill.
Wearable Grandeur
Despite its ultra-complexity, the watch remains surprisingly wearable. With a case diameter of 47 mm, a thickness of 14.5 mm, and a lug-to-lug of 54.6 mm, it remains elegant and wearable. Water-resistant to an unimportant 10 meters, and offering a comfortable folding clasp in gold, the timepiece is finished with a choice of luxurious alligator leather straps.
Each Grande Double Sonnerie comes in a special presentation box crafted from the wood sourced locally from the Risoud forest in the Vallée de Joux. This special type of resonance spruce is world-renowned for acoustic properties and is very cherished by luthiers. The box doubles as a natural amplifier for the timepiece’s resonant sonnerie.
Absolute exclusivity defines the watch as each timepiece can be custom-designed to its buyer’s wishes.
A Personal Legacy
The production of the Grande Double Sonnerie is limited to just two timepieces per year. Each watch is the work of a single watchmaker and is the culmination of a year’s labor. As Marc Hayek summarized, this watch was not designed to “merely reside in a safe,” but to “make you smile as it sounds the time”. With its two melodies, crystalline acoustics, and refined architecture, the Blancpain Grande Double Sonnerie is indeed a reason to smile.
The Blancpain Grande Double Sonnerie is nothing short of a horological symphony, a poetic blend of innovation and art, offering owners a rare chance to experience, at their wrist, the sound and soul of Swiss watchmaking at its apex.
