Antique musical sonnerie repeater pocket watch (musical movement profiled)
2 Video Views·May 21, 2026
Antique musical sonnerie repeater pocket watches are among the most mechanically sophisticated portable timepieces ever made. These watches combine three major complications:
Repeater — chimes the time on demand (hours, quarters, or minutes)
Sonnerie — automatically strikes the time as hours/quarters pass
Musical movement — plays a melody using pinned cylinders/discs and tuned steel combs
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Video Summary
AI GeneratedThis video showcases a rare antique sonoré musical repeater pocket watch from the early 1800s. With the dial removed, the presenter demonstrates the intricate internal musical mechanism and the repeater function, highlighting the watch's exceptional condition and the rarity of its complete 25-tooth musical cylinder.
I'm making a short video to demonstrate a rather rare antique pocket watch. So I have
the dial removed and this is a true sonoré musical repeater pocket watch and underneath
the dial is where the musical side of the pocket watch resides. It is a sur plateau musical
mechanism and it has 25 teeth. That's a lot of teeth for a pocket watch and this is a sonoré
and so when you have it engaged it'll play the song on the hour every hour and it's also a
repeater and I just thought before I put everything back together that I would make a video so you can
see how the musical portion of such a pocket watch works. So I'm going to go ahead and again
it operates on the hour every hour but you can also play it on demand by sliding this lever.
So let's go ahead and do this. It plays perfectly. Amazingly, all the teeth are intact. That
typically is not the case. This is a very early musical pocket watch from the early 1800s and
it's complete and so it's a real treat. Bear with me here. Let's go ahead and do the repeater
from this side and that works as it should as well. So I'm going to put the dial back on now
and then I'll make another video with it all back together but I just thought people would
like to see what the musical side of such a watch would do. Let's do it again just for fun.
Pretty cool. Take care.