When Blancpain began work on what would eventually become the Grande Double Sonnerie, the intention wasn’t to build the most complicated watch in the brand’s history. But after eight years of experimentation, invention, and obsessive refinement, Blancpain has unveiled a chiming wristwatch so ambitious it borders on myth. The new Grande Double Sonnerie packs a staggering 1,053 components into a 47mm case, delivering a four-note grand sonnerie, a minute repeater, a flying tourbillon, and a fully integrated retrograde perpetual calendar — all within a piece mainly built by hand.
At its core is the hand-wound 15GSQ movement, running at 4Hz with 96 hours of power for timekeeping and 12 hours reserved for the chiming mechanism. The sonnerie itself is where things get extraordinary. Instead of two gongs, Blancpain engineered a four-note system capable of performing either the Westminster chime or a proprietary melody developed with Eric Singer of KISS. A column-wheel-activated selector lets the wearer choose between the two. The result isn’t just chimes — it’s music.
Equally impressive is the integration of the perpetual calendar directly into the skeletonized mainplate, positioned to preserve the dramatic view of the chiming system. A flying tourbillon with a silicon balance spring anchors the lower dial, framed by immaculate hand-finished anglage boasting 135 inward angles. Each watch takes a single watchmaker roughly a year to assemble, and only two will be built annually.
With an estimated price of $2,100,000, this is not a timepiece; it’s a once-in-a-generation feat of mechanical artistry.
For more horology news, see the Zenith DEFY Extreme Lapis Lazuli.
