What watch do you have on your wrist? Not a chronograph. Too busy, too many buttons altogether to pragmatic for your gentlemanly tastes. Maybe a tourbillon but the problem is too many of them are just plain showy with their arriviste spinning cages on – gasp – the front of the dial. No you sir, are a man destined to own a minute repeater. What’s a minute repeater? Only the single most complicated watch ever created.

Minute Repeaters Are Watches That Play The Time On Demand

Touch a button and suddenly your apparently simple watch ignites in sonic pyrotechnics chiming the time in a sequence of hours, quarters (of the hour) and minutes. Again like the most complications it was created to meet the demands of the aristocracy hundreds of years ago. Imagine your laying under your goose down duvet and you want to know what time it is so that you can eject that fetching ambidextrous scullery maid next to you before your wife returns from the opera. It’s a lot less effort to reach over and activate your repeater rather than go through the pedestrian rigmarole of stumbling in the dark to light a candle to check our watch right?

So how do they work? By pressing the slide on the side of the case you cause two tiny hammers to strike the time on two equally tiny gongs that circle the perimeter of the movement. The two gongs are tuned differently the first playing a lower note and the other a higher. Hours are struck on the lower gong. Quarters are played with a high low combination of both gongs and the minutes — specifically the up to fourteen minutes before the next quarter — are played on the high gong. Here’s how it works. 1: 38 would sound like this. Dong (for the hour) Ding Dong, Ding Dong for two quarters or 30 mins, and finally ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding for eight minutes.

Since its introduction back in 1995 the IWC Portuguese minute repeater has established a reputation as one of the world’s most handsome, most innovative and incredibly enough most affordable minute repeaters. Strap it on and it is the perfect model of discrete elegance the only tell tale sign of its incredible complexity the slide on the side of the case that unleashes its sonic abilities.

But what’s important to know is that from a historical perspective the IWC Portuguese minute repeater is one the most important watches ever made. Here’s why. The IWC minute repeater had its genesis in another legendary timepiece from 1990, the brand’s first grand complication. You see, IWC had always been a brand that created smart, functionally innovative, industrialized but high quality timepieces.

The High Complications Race

Because their pilot’s watches were adopted by the RAF as well as the Luftwaffe, IWC had become associated with pragmatic tool watches. But when he took over the brand in 1985, Gunther Blumlein, a man considered to be one of the great geniuses in the modern watch industry, wanted to add another dimension to IWC’s abilities. He wanted to demonstrate IWC could enter the world of complicated watches. In 1989 a brand named Blancpain created the 1735 at the time the world’s most complicated wristwatch. It featured a tourbillon, minute repeater, perpetual calendar, split second chronograph. The 1735 was a hugely audacious timepiece that symbolized the renaissance of mechanical watchmaking after the quartz crisis and became a rallying cry to the entire Swiss industry.

How Does A Minute Repeater Work?

How does the repeater function get its power? Well each repeater has a second spring barrel. When you press the slide, you arm the barrel causing the spring to contract and when you release it, the power of it uncoiling sets the repeater into motion. The way you stop the power from releasing too quickly is by using a governor called a regulator. One particularity of the IWC repeater module is that the snails are not on the center pinion where the hands are attached but offset and driven by the minute wheel. Why? Because this kept the way clear for the switching impulses of the perpetual calendar module.

In 1990 IWC unveiled their initial foray into high complications with the stunning Grande Complication, an automatic chronograph with perpetual calendar and minute repeater and a solid caseback. But this was just step one in Blumlein’s grad plan. In 1993 for the brand’s 125th anniversary IWC unveiled the full majesty of Blumlein’s vision with Il Destriero Scafusia or “The Warhorse of Schaffhausen a demonstration that IWC could equal the achievements of he Blancpain 1735 at a more accessible price using their engineering intelligence.

By creating a modular system, the strike mechanism and sound of the watch could be perfected before mounting it to the movement. Allowing for a shorter construction time. This smart functional innovation and modular construction allowed IWC to present what has to be universally considered one of the world’s most beautiful minute repeaters at a price far below that of the average super high end repeater. The one draw back is that the strike mechanism is obscured from view. However flip the Portuguese minute repeater over and you’ll be greeted by the welcome site of the stunning of the same Caliber 982 found in the historic watches.

The beauty of the IWC minute repeater is it is the very model of discrete charm. At 43 mm it is a scant 1 mm larger than the historic Portuguese 325 and only marginally thicker. Indeed worn on your left wrist it’s slide the only hit at is soaring sonic abilities is normally obscured from prying eyes letting you keep its high complication abilities a secret to be divulged to only those you deem fit. Considering its highly accessible price it is the perfect choice for your first minute repeater and a watch that is a testament to the incredible ingenuity expressed by IWC.