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The life of a great timepiece is often longer than the life of the person lucky enough to possess it. Build it well enough, and it becomes an heirloom handed down for generations. True for all antiques-in-waiting, they come to exist not at the moment the last pieces are carefully set in place, but at the very second they are a dream to be realized. Our first-ever Perpetual Calendar, Minute Repeater is one such piece, and worthy of its own issue. Several years in development, and scheduled for release in May 2005,
the Invicta Perpetual Calendar, Minute Repeater is an achievement of
micro-mechanics and another resounding example of the metamorphic changes
taking place at Invicta. Only the world’s most prestigious houses
could achieve a timepiece with a complication this extreme. |
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A Perpetual Calendar and a Minute Repeater are two separate, yet equally intricate complications seldom found in the same piece. A Perpetual Calendar is the most complex complication related to the calendar feature, as it indicates the date, day, month and leap year and does not need manual corrections until the year 2100 when the leap year will be ignored. It was patented by the great Abraham-Louis Breguet in 1795 and became one of the most refined achievements in horology. Creating such a complication demands a great deal of time and investment, which is why serious watchmakers only attempt it. A Minute Repeater is a mechanism that indicates time by acoustic sounds. The mechanism of the striking work is among the most sophisticated ever. Originated by the need to read time in the dark, it was first invented in the 16th century, perfected by Breguet at the end of the 18th century then introduced in wristwatches in the first half of the 20th century. The mechanism normally contains two hammers and two gongs, one to indicate minutes and one to indicate hours. Quarter hours are obtained by the near simultaneous strike of both hammers. The mechanism can be turned on or off by means of a pusher or slide. We now proudly detail the features of our version of these two masterworks. |
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| The ultimate toy for those who love to tinker with their timepiece, there’s much to discover here. The repeater function allows you to determine the current time by the simple use of the pushers (remember, it was invented for timekeeping in the dark), or you can set it as an alarm. |  |
The repeater mode allows you to set the alarm to chime once at a desired time, every day at the same time, or even every day at a desired local time. The local time alarm can even be set in 30-minute increments. Let’s say you set the alarm for 7:32. At 7:32 you would hear 7 high-pitched chimes for the 7, 2 high and low-pitched chimes for the 30 (one chime for each 1/4 hour), and 2 low-pitched chimes for the 2. The perpetual calendar featuring the day, date, month and leap year can be set by hand then fully adjusts automatically. Movement: multi-hand analog quartz; 6U60-bipolar step motors. Read the complete review soon on www.invictawatch.com. And be sure to look for it at an Authorized Invicta Retailer in May 2005. An instruction manual is included with each piece.
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