Striking Time: The Ulysse Nardin Triple Jack Minute Repeater

One of the most interesting aspects of the world of complicated watchmaking – this year, or really, any year since the mechanical watch renaissance began in the late 1980s and early 1990s – has been the evolution of the minute repeater. Like virtually every complication, the repeater has been the subject of examination and evolution and from the classic design, which was more or less established by the mid-19th century. We have seen experiments with novel case constructions (the Audemars Piguet Super Sonnerie watches are a good example) novel gong materials, new designs for the repeater hammers (Jaeger-LeCoultre’s “trebuchet” hammers) and changes in the design of the repeater train to increase safety, reliability, and precision in the execution of the strike.

What we have not seen, and may never see, is the industrialization of the minute repeater. Repeaters remain the only complication which has never been successfully simplified and industrialized for wider production – the split-seconds chronograph, perpetual calendar, and tourbillon (to pick just three) all of which once required considerable manual skill in construction and adjustment, have all been redesigned over the last thirty or so years to enable them to be produced in larger numbers. The repeater, however, has at least so far resisted this trend and thanks to the time, energy, and effort necessary to make one, they remain for now (along with the grande sonnerie) the most elevated watchmaking complication. This week, for A Watch A Week, we’re taking a look at one of the pioneers of modern complicated watchmaking, and one of their most interesting watches. The company is Ulysse Nardin, and the watch is the Triple Jack Minute Repeater.

Because of the complexity of repeating watches, very few manufacturers if any continued to make them during the quartz crisis, and even Patek Philippe experienced a surprisingly long hiatus in its production of minute repeaters (between the 2534, in 1958, and the 3615, in 1982, almost a quarter-century passed, which is especially surprising when you consider that if there’s one brand associated with repeaters, it’s Patek). However, as with the tourbillon, being able to field a repeater was as the 1980s progressed, a sure way of setting yourself apart from other watch manufacturers and through the 1990s, brands as varied as Blancpain, IWC, Patek (of course) Daniel Roth, Genta, Jaeger-LeCoultre and others, all introduced new chiming complications as a way of establishing their credentials – or in some cases, re-establishing their credentials – as masters of mechanical watchmaking.

One of the resurgent brands which turned to complicated watchmaking as a way of establishing a unique identity, was Ulysse Nardin. UN today is primarily known for many variations on the Freak but when the late Rolf Schnyder acquired the brand in 1983, he set about, with the polymath watchmaker and physicist Dr. Ludwig Oechslin, to make the brand famous as a master of exotic complications. The astronomical Trilogy Of Time watches were unlike anything anyone had ever put into a wristwatch, and Schnyder also wanted to introduce chiming complications into the company’s catalogue as quickly as possible – but in an interesting and unusual way. He decided that he’d take a very, very old horological complication and put it, for the first time, into a wristwatch.

Jacquemarts or striking jacks on the Ulysse Nardin Triple Jack Repeater

The complication in question was something called the jacquemarts minute repeater, or, minute repeater with striking jacks. Nobody seems to know for sure where the term “jacquemarts” comes from – there’s no shortage of theories, although the general meaning of the term’s widely agreed on. (Dr. Marcus Hanke’s article on striking jacks, and their use in Ulysse Nardin’s repeaters, at WatchProSite.com, is still an excellent introduction to the topic). Striking jacks are basically a subtype of automaton – usually they take the form of miniature figures holding little hammers, which they use to strike bells in synchronization with the repeater chimes. Ulysse Nardin’s first minute repeater was based on the striking jacks on the Venetian clock tower in the Piazza San Marco and the watch was the San Marco Minute Repeater.

Ulysse Nardin did not have the in-house expertise to make its own repeater movements, so they turned to a supplier – Christoph Claret, who, on his very first trip to Baselworld in 1987 at the age of 25, met Rolf Schnyder, who ended up placing an order with Claret for 20 minute repeater movements. Claret would go on to become famous as a complications specialist in general, and an expert in chiming complications, before starting his own brand in 2010.

The 2013 Ulysse Nardin “Carnival Of Venice” minute repeater

After the launch of the San Marco in 1989, UN continued to create repeaters, often with automata or striking jacks – probably the most complex were the Genghis Khan, Hannibal, and Alexander The Great tourbillon repeaters with automata, which featured warriors clashing weapons together (Hanke remarks in his article that you could maybe give the automata a pass as striking jacks since a sword striking another sword makes a ringing noise).

One of the later striking jack minute repeaters produced by Ulysse Nardin during Schnyder’s lifetime, was the 2007 Triple Jack Minute Repeater. This is a classic striking jack repeater, inasmuch as the automata are actually striking bells, which speaks a bit to the history of jaquemarts in general – in their original form, jaquemarts (as seen on the clock tower in the Piazza San Marco) would have struck actual bells. Automata on wristwatches are rare but not unheard of, certainly – Louis Vuitton is one of the relatively small number of watch manufacturers making them on at least a semi-regular basis, for instance, and jacquemarts were certainly found, if not often, at least occasionally, in pocket watches – but I can’t recall any wristwatch repeaters other than those made by UN that have little men with little hammers striking little bells.

The movement is designated UN-73, and it seems to be a variation on the basic caliber originally designed by Claret for Ulysse Nardin all the way back in 1989.

This is an absolutely classic configuration of a minute repeater movement – the actual repeater racks, snails and cams are under the dial and therefore hidden from view, but on the back you can see the entire going train, as well as the hammers and gongs. This general configuration is common to many hand wound wristwatch repeater movements – the Lemania 399/Breguet 567 is another good example of the genre. The fact that so many classic repeater calibers share the same basic layout speaks I think to the inherent conservatism of Swiss watchmaking, sure, but it also speaks to the complexity and difficulty of making a good quality repeater at all – so once you find a mechanical solution that works, you stick with it; with something as complicated as a repeater, you meddle with successful established practice at your peril.

The movement is as high grade a repeater caliber as you could want – jeweled throughout, with the repeater train “jeweled to the hammers” and there is jeweling for the regulator as well. Steel work is black polished, with a swan’s neck regulator and a quite beautiful terminal balance spring stud and the watch has pretty classical specs in other respects as well – a 36 hour power reserve, and a frequency of 18,000 vph. The platinum case and traditional construction mean that this repeater is on the quiet side but it makes up in quality of tone what it gives up in volume (one of the problems with repeaters constructed primarily for volume is that they can sometimes end up sounding rather harsh and one-dimensional).

It occurred to me while researching this watch that there has never been – or at least, I don’t think there has ever been – anything even remotely like a “hype” repeater and I think there are probably a couple of reasons why (maybe more than a couple). The first is cost and rarity – repeaters in resisting larger scale series production, have also resisted widespread exposure to the larger watch buying public, which I think is part of the larger shift in the market away from an holistic interest in horology as an art, science, and combination of design and decorative arts, and towards instantly recognizable designs which are influencer and social-media friendly. The second is that generally repeaters are quite difficult to distinguish from simple time-only watches, unless you take steps to either signal the existence of the complication visually (which I think AP has done to some extent with its Supersonnerie watches) or unless the repeater is part of a larger suite of complications (another example, again from AP, is the Code 11.59 Universelle, which might not be obviously a repeater, but which is obviously a highly complex and obviously costly wristwatch).

Third, repeaters are in their general vibe, if I can use the word for a complication which, if it could shudder, would shudder at the term, not exactly the sort of slickly flashly exercises in instantly recognizable ostentation that plays well to a larger audience. They are in short aristocratic rather than extroverted social signals of conspicuous consumption – which I should add I have nothing against, everyone is into what they’re into for their own reasons – but owning one is sort of like owning a prized first edition of the Shakespeare & Company edition of “Ulysses,” you can’t expect it to draw crowds like the neighbor’s new ultra-high definition flatscreen TV.

That is however, a feature not a bug. It used to be my dearest hope that repeaters would one day be accorded the respect from the wider watch enthusiast public which I think they so richly merit but I am years weary in waiting and perhaps it’s just as well. The general watchmaking landscape has become menacingly homogenous and worryingly unimaginative in the last couple of years – this is not to say that there are not exceptions and this is not to say that there are not many beautiful watches still being made. But I wonder, whether in 2024, we are going to see any major luxury brand release a new watch with as much intrinsic interest as this warhorse from the pre-financial crisis, high-water mark of the mechanical renaissance.

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