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Blancpain

Hands-On: The Blancpain Grande Double Sonnerie, Explained

Blancpain’s Grande Double Sonnerie combines automatic striking, a minute repeater, two four-note melodies, a retrograde perpetual calendar and a flying tourbillon. Here is how the mechanism works and what the 2025 hands-on report said about fit, price and production.

By WatchRanker Team 4 min read
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Blancpain’s Grande Double Sonnerie combines an automatically striking grande sonnerie with petite sonnerie and on-demand minute repeater modes—and gives the wearer a choice of two four-note melodies. Announced on 24 November 2025, it also pairs the chime with a retrograde perpetual calendar and flying tourbillon. The mechanism is unusually elaborate; the available hands-on account adds a useful, but personal, impression of how its 47 mm case wears.

What makes the Grande Double Sonnerie different?

At its heart is Blancpain caliber 15GSQ, which combines three ways of sounding the time: grande sonnerie, petite sonnerie and minute repeater. The watch also has a retrograde perpetual calendar and a flying tourbillon. Blancpain describes it as its most complicated in-house creation.

Automatic striking, plus a repeater on demand

A grande sonnerie chimes automatically as time passes; a minute repeater sounds when the wearer activates it. Blancpain’s explainer distinguishes the two by that trigger: the sonnerie draws energy from the movement to strike in passage, while the repeater is initiated on demand. In this watch, Blancpain says one of its two barrels powers the running train and the other the striking mechanism.

Four notes and two melodies

The striking system uses four hammers and gongs to produce four notes—E, G, F and B. A pusher on the case lets the wearer choose between the Westminster sequence and an original Blancpain melody composed by musician Eric Singer. Blancpain says two separate quarter racks make that selection possible.

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Blancpain’s account says the watch sounds all four quarter sequences on the hour. That makes its full-hour chime longer than a conventional grande sonnerie that sounds fewer quarters at that point. The pace is controlled by a silent magnetic regulator; an acoustic membrane integrated into the bezel is intended to help transmit the sound. Those descriptions are Blancpain’s explanation of the construction, not independent acoustic measurements.

How the calendar, tourbillon and safeguards fit in

Retrograde perpetual calendar

The calendar is retrograde, with correctors positioned under the lugs. Blancpain says the movement includes five safety systems intended to help prevent damage from incorrect handling. The maker does not specify in the cited material which operating errors each system guards against, so the figure should not be read as a substitute for following the watch’s instructions.

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Flying tourbillon

The flying tourbillon is paired with a silicon balance spring and runs at 4 Hz, according to Blancpain. It shares the movement with the calendar and striking mechanism rather than being a separate module described in isolation.

What Blancpain says went into the movement

Blancpain describes the watch as the result of an eight-year development project involving 1,200 technical drawings. Its published figures are 21 patents developed, 13 incorporated into the final construction, 1,053 components in caliber 15GSQ and 1,116 components in the complete watch. These are the manufacturer’s development and component counts.

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The movement’s mainplate and 26 bridges are 18 ct gold. Blancpain lists hand-finishing techniques including anglage, perlage, mirror polishing, diamond milling and straight graining, and says both visible and hidden component surfaces are decorated. Its corporate release counts 135 inward angles. The presentation box is made with wood from the Risoud forest; Blancpain says the box is designed to act as a soundboard.

Case dimensions and Robert-Jan Broer’s hands-on impression

Blancpain’s published dimensions are 47 mm in diameter, 54.6 mm from lug to lug and 14.5 mm thick. Fratello’s Robert-Jan Broer, who handled the watch during a visit to Blancpain in Le Brassus, reports the same measurements. He says it wore impressively on his 18 cm wrist and describes the thickness as acceptable. That is Broer’s personal fit impression, not a prediction for every wrist.

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Fratello reports red- or white-gold case options, an open-worked 5N gold dial, sapphire crystals on both sides, a 23 mm lug width and an alligator strap with a gold folding clasp. Its specifications list a 96-hour timekeeping power reserve and a 12-hour striking reserve in grande sonnerie mode; those reserve figures are Fratello’s reported specifications.

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Price, reported output and personalization

In its 24 November 2025 article, Fratello reported a price of CHF 1.7 million excluding VAT. That is the price reported at publication, not a verified current quote or confirmed 2026 price.

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The same report says Blancpain stated production capacity of two watches a year, while CEO Marc A. Hayek told Broer that he expected actual output at the time to be one watch a year. These are dated capacity and expectation figures, not a confirmed schedule for 2026. They do not establish a fixed limited-edition size.

Blancpain says each watch can be custom-made to its owner’s preferences. Broer additionally reports that a buyer could request a different melody, provided it retained the same four notes and tempo. Specific customization choices should be confirmed with Blancpain rather than assumed from that report.

What the design is trying to achieve

Blancpain CEO and president Marc A. Hayek framed the project as an attempt to make a grande sonnerie that its owner could wear, rather than a watch intended to remain in a safe. He also emphasized the aim of offering two melodies with musicality and an emotionally engaging sound. That statement explains the brand’s design intent; it is not independent evidence of comfort or acoustic performance.

Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.

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