GRANDE SONNERIE
Grande Sonnerie rings at the passage of each quarter of an hour the number of hours, as well as the number of quarters of an hour.
This type of watch almost always has a selector that will allow you to set the Petite Sonnerie or Silent position, which allows you to deactivate the ringing tone.
Generally, they are equipped with the function Minute Repeater, but the watches equipped with bells in the passage are often distinguished by the mechanism of its triggering. This is done by a push-button and not by a lock as on a watch having as a ringing mechanism only the Minute Repeater.
This comes from the fact that a watch with a striking mechanism must store energy in advance in its barrel, which is not the case of a Minute Repeater where precisely by this movement of the bolt one arms the spring which will allow the watch to strike during the twenty seconds which will follow.
Watches with striking mechanism have a crown that goes up in both directions of rotation. In one direction it is the barrel of the movement that is wound and in the other the striking mechanism.
Two mechanisms for regulating the speed of the striking exist, one with an anchor and the other with a wheel. The one with an anchor has the advantage of having an eccentric screw where the watchmaker can adjust the speed of the alarm to the customer’s request. The one with a flywheel has the advantage of being quieter than the previous one in its action of regulating the speed of the ringing but it is more difficult to adjust the ringing to the speed at which the customer wishes to hear his ringing.
The Grande Sonnerie has the disadvantage over the Petite Sonnerie of using the power reserve of the striking barrel more quickly.