Greubel Forsey Grande Sonnerie

Quick specs Greubel Forsey Grande Sonnerie Price: CHF 1’150’000 | approx. $ 1,127,000 | approx. € 1.033.000 (all excluding VAT) Size: 43.5 mm Reference: unknown

To develop the Greubel Forsey Grande Sonnerie no less than 11 years where spend, and this is the result. Literally a striking time piece with one of the industry’s most technical and complex complications, the Grande Sonnerie. And Petite Sonnerie, and minute repeater. It’s the first chiming watch of Greubel Forsey.

This chiming masterpiece gives the wearer four options. The Grande Sonnerie, or quarter striking mechanism, strikes the hours and quarters that have past, every quarter. Or the watch only chimes the number of hours at each hour, the Petite Sonnerie. Or you can silence both completely. Or you can activate the minute repeater on demand: it will chime the hours, and number of quarters and number of minutes that have past. No wonder GF needed 935 parts to create this watch. And it is a miracle they could house it in a relatively small case.

The Greubel Forsey Grande Sonnerie has two separate power-supplies

To power all the complications the Greubel Forsey Grande Sonnerie has two power-supplies. One for the time, one for the chiming mechanism. The power for the time comes from two barrels, fueled by hand-winding. The power-reserve is 70 hours. The power for the chiming mechanism comes from a spring barrel via a platinum mini rotor; automatically wound. It has a power-reserve of 20 hours, which is about 80 activations of the strike train. The reason for the separated power-supply is simple: chiming mechanisms take a lot of energy which could affect the accuracy of the timing mechanism. Greubel Forsey even wanted more accuracy by using their well-known 24-second tourbillon.

Of course, on the golden black dial you will see what time it is. But there is more. Let’s start with the first. At the 2 o’clock position there is the power-reserve indicator of the sonnerie. At 3 o’ clock there is the chosen sonnerie mode: PS for Petite Sonnerie, GS for Grande Sonnerie and SL for the silent mode. At 5 there is the power-reserve indicator of the movement. Between 6 and 7 there is a sub-dial for the seconds, and at 8 o’clock you can see GF’s 24-second tourbillon. Last but not least, the cathedral gongs and striking hammers, visible between the 10 and 11 o’clock position.

To protect the fragile chiming mechanism Greubel Forsey uses 11 security mechanisms. So you can’t wind it while it’s chiming, for instance. That should give you a comfortable feeling when you think about the price. Or should we say: investment?