Patek Philippe?s new 6301P features not only a grande sonnerie with a petite sonnerie and a minute repeater, it also comes with a patented ?seconde morte? jumping subsidiary seconds. We delve into its many complexities in this feature from our January-February 2021 issue.

Patek Philippe Ref. 6301P Grande Sonnerie

In the world of haute horlogerie, hardly anything is as exclusive and alluring as a chiming watch. Often described as the ultimate single complication in watchmaking, only a few manufacturers are at present capable of producing them in-house. Unsurprisingly, it is estimated that only a few hundred minute repeaters are produced in Switzerland each year, and only a handful of them are grande sonneries ? chiming watches that automatically strike the full hours and the quarter hours. Last November, in time for Philippe Stern?s 82nd birthday, the independent Genevan manufacture Patek Philippe added a new member to its already impressive collection of repeater watches, the Ref. 6301P Grande Sonnerie. It features three classic gongs and two patents for the striking mechanism and the jumping small seconds at 6 o?clock. It is also the first Patek with a grande sonnerie ?in its purest manifestation.?
Patek has added a small jumping seconds (or dead-beat seconds) display, which was never done with a grande sonnerie.

While the invention of the chiming clock is generally credited to English watchmaker Daniel Quare (1647/49 – 1724), Patek Philippe began produci...