A repeater is a complication in a mechanical watch or clock that chimes the hours and often minutes at the press of a button. There are many types of repeater, from the simple repeater which merely strikes the number of hours, to the minute repeater which chimes the time down to the minute, using separate tones for hours, quarter hours, and minutes. They originated before widespread artificial illumination, to allow the time to be determined in the dark, and were also used by the visually impaired. Now they are mostly valued as expensive novelties by watch and clock enthusiasts.
Our Minute repeater is made by the famous Suisse company Le Phare. As the first Swiss company to make repeating movements with interchangeable parts. The company developed mass-produced repeating movements and distributed them to many casing companies in Switzerland. The Le Phare repeater system was the most robust and reliable for the time.
The minute repeater was produced for the Utrecht jeweler van Kempen. They were well known as silversmiths in their day but also sold beautiful pocket watches in their shop.
Please visit our youtube account for a movie from our minute repeater:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKOEGdIbAE8
