What makes the Supersonnerie by Audemars Piguet chime so loud?

Jun 19

In this video report, we come back on a rather extraordinary watch, the Supersonnerie by Audemars Piguet and we will focus on its chiming mechanism and some of its very innovative acoustic features. AP kindly opened their doors to us and let us see some of these watches currently in production and we are talking only a few pieces per year.

The Supersonnerie was first seen as a non sellable concept watch at the 2015 SIHH and was presented as the RD1. It was then actually launched the following year, still in the same case and was known as the Royal Oak Concept Supersonnerie and this year we have seen this movement encased in a more classical Jules Audemars timepiece.

The goal of this development was threefold; first Audemars Piguet wanted to create a waterproof minute repeater watch, something that goes against all established principles as you need the sound created within the case to “escape” outside of it to hear it well. This is something that had already been tried, but with mixed results precisely because of the sound being entrapped. Secondly and in contrast to this, they wanted exceptional sound quality with a clear tone and unprecedented volume for a chiming watch, as simple as that. And thirdly, AP wanted the chiming mechanism to be as secure as possible, meaning that you could operate your watch more or less the way you want without the risk of damaging such an intricate mechanism.