Hear the Blancpain Grande Double Sonnerie (Video Inside) and Revisit 2025’s Best Chiming Watches

For fans of chiming watches, this past year has been quite the ride.

Parmigiani Fleurier closed 2024 with a quizzical beauty—L’Armoriale Répétition Mystérieuse—an enigmatic timepiece that revealed nothing on its dial and only chimed the time. A. Lange Söhne swept Watches Wonders 2025 off its feet with the Minute Repeater Perpetual, merging two complications that hadn’t appeared together in 12 years. Vacheron Constantin not only brought this complication to its Overseas collection, but also integrated it into the most complicated wristwatch ever made: the Solaria Ultra Grand Complication.

At Dubai Watch Week 2025, Chopard, a long-decorated pioneer in chiming mechanisms, unveiled the L.U.C Grand Strike. And just as we were warming our vocal cords to sing Auld Lang Syne, Blancpain revealed a melodious project that it had kept mum about for eight years.

For decades, Blancpain, among the oldest Swiss watch manufactures still in operation, was positioned within the Swatch Group as the champion of dive watch technology, while its sister brand Breguet carried the torch for classical high complications. That division of labor held firm for years.

But after Blancpain’s trilogy of watches marking the Fifty Fathoms’ 70th anniversary, something shifted. Rumors swirled that Swatch Group was preparing to blur those boundaries: Breguet would push further into tool watch territory, and Blancpain would reclaim its heritage in traditional complications.

By the third quarter of 2025, the whispers proved true. A refreshed suite of Blancpain Villeret watches debuted, offering improved functionality, greater durability, and a noticeably more refined presence. The collection looked perfectly at home at a black-tie dinner, yet still carried the technical credibility of a bona fide dive watch.

At the launch, a Blancpain executive let slip a mischievous hint. “If you like this collection,” she told me. “We’re ending Blancpain’s 290th anniversary with a very big surprise.”

I took her words with a pinch of salt, and was certainly not prepared for the surprise that followed: the Blancpain Grande Double Sonnerie.

In the video above, you can hear the Blancpain Grande Double Sonnerie play the traditional Westminster Chime, followed by the newly composed Blancpain chime.

Attempting the Unprecedented

Stealing headlines with ultra-complicated watches is usually the business of brands like Vacheron Constantin (Reference 57260, 2015), Patek Philippe (Grandmaster Chime, 2014; and Calibre 89, 1989), Breguet (Grande Complication Marie-Antoinette No. 160, recreated in 2008), Franck Muller (Aeternitas Mega 4, 2009), Jaeger-LeCoultre (Hybris Mechanica à Grande Sonnerie, 2009), and Audemars Piguet (Universelle RD#4, 2023).

Blancpain, whose last major entry in this realm was the Blancpain 1735 Grande Complication of 1991, has surprised the watch world by throwing its name back into the hat. Its new Grande Double Sonnerie is the world’s first grande sonnerie wristwatch capable of playing two selectable melodies.

The product of eight years of intensive research and testing, the Grande Double Sonnerie is a genuine world first. The development process generated 21 patent filings, 13 of which were ultimately integrated into the final timepiece.

The watch offers three modes: grande sonnerie, petite sonnerie, and silent. In grande sonnerie mode, the watch automatically chimes the hours and the quarters; at the top of each hour, it plays a full melody. In petite sonnerie mode, it chimes only the hours on the hour and only the quarters at each quarter. It can also remain quiet at the wearer’s discretion.

Blancpain CEO Marc A. Hayek assembled a team of the foremost specialists in the field and tasked them with creating a revolutionary, yet wearable, chiming watch. He also enlisted Eric Singer—the drummer of KISS and a prominent watch collector—to help craft an acoustically clear, pleasing, and emotionally resonant melody.

Hayek’s brief to the rock ‘n’ roll legend was simple yet exacting: compose a soothing melody with no repeated notes in each phrase. Singer delivered ten compositions, and Hayek selected the one that became the official Blancpain chime.

It takes a village to raise a child, but it takes a village of engineers, artisans, musicians, and acoustic specialists to build a watch capable of playing both the traditional Westminster chime and Blancpain’s new signature melody. Buyers of the Grande Double Sonnerie can even commission their own bespoke chime.

Engineering a movement that could accommodate a crisp, double-melody chiming module, alongside a flying tourbillon and a perpetual calendar with retrograde date, was a herculean challenge, marked by countless rounds of trial and error. Ultimately, the manufacture managed to fit all the Caliber 15G SQ into a case measuring 47mm in diameter and just 14.5mm thick.

Clients may choose between 18k red or white gold, or commission a bespoke case material, provided they can meet the CHF 1.7 million starting price. While Blancpain has not limited production, output will be capped at only two pieces per year.

Beyond Dive Watches

The Grande Double Sonnerie incorporates thoughtful features—safety mechanisms, discreet under-lug correctors, and modern aesthetic refinements—updates also found in Blancpain’s new-generation Villeret line.

Beyond the patents and technical innovations amassed through this project, Hayek intends for the breakthroughs to trickle into future Blancpain timepieces. More importantly, the Grande Double Sonnerie stands as a declaration of intent: Blancpain will strive until it ascends into the top echelon of haute horlogerie, earning a place of prominence whenever collectors discuss the most complicated watchmaking of our era.