Antique musical sonnerie repeater pocket watch
Jun 22, 2026
Watch the complete restoration of a rare antique musical sonnerie repeater pocket watch. This extraordinary timepiece, featuring a complex chiming and musical mechanism, is carefully dismantled, cleaned, repaired, and restored to its former glory. Experience the fascinating craftsmanship hidden inside as decades of wear are reversed and the beautiful repeater melody is brought back to life.
AI GeneratedMay contain errors
Video Summary
AI GeneratedThis video showcases a rare, early 19th-century 18k gold musical sonneret pocket watch. The piece is notable for its massive 60mm size and complex mechanical functions, including a repeater mechanism and an automatic musical chime that triggers every hour, all maintained in excellent cosmetic and mechanical condition.
I'm making a video to demonstrate a very rare and very old
sonneret pocket watch. What makes this one special, it's a musical sonneret pocket watch.
This pocket watch is massive. The case measures approximately 60 millimeters in diameter,
excluding the bow and stem. Right now I have it turned to silence right here. I'm going to switch
this to music. The music side of the movement is wound here. The time is wound there. Both use the
same key. Before we play the music, it's also a repeater watch. So I'm going to depress the plunger
and then you'll hear the repeat. Let's do that again. So 10 dings, three ding-dongs,
indicating 10.45. And then once it turns past 11, it would ding 11 times and no ding-dongs.
What makes this really special though, bear with me, I need to take off my glove. This is a very
old pocket watch and so you set the time, bear with me, by accessing the front. There we go.
All the hinges are very nice. Everything closes nice and tight. So I'm going to advance the time
and then you'll hear what makes this special. Okay, the ready just clicked. Isn't that nice?
And this is a true sonneret, so the music will play on the hour, every hour automatically,
as long as you don't have the inside lever switched to silent. Go ahead.
Oh, let's go ahead and check the repeater now. 11 dings, no ding-dongs. Go ahead and close the
front. Now, if you want to show this off to your friends, you don't have to wait for the sonneret
function to kick in on the hour. There's a tiny little knob right here and if you slide this to
the right, you can play music on demand. Fantastic example and excellent mechanical and cosmetic
condition. There aren't any major dings or scratches to the case. It is solid 18 karat gold.
It keeps excellent time. Everything's been serviced, so it functions as it should.
And I made another video demonstrating how the mechanical music portion of this watch works,
which sits beneath the dial. And this would have been made in the early 1800s. Very cool piece.
Take care.