Abbey Road Studios and Vacheron Constantin record some of the world’s rarest chiming wristwatches

On 1 December, the latest treasures were revealed in the watch-collecting mecca of Singapore. Among the 20-or-so unique watches making their world debut were perpetual calendars and tourbillons, but the majority of the 2019 collection was dedicated to chiming watches – pieces that audibly sounds the time, either automatically or on demand, via coiled gongs and striking hammers within the case – and suitably named La Musique du Temps.

The reasons behind the theme are many. Vacheron is one of the few Swiss houses that has specialised in chiming movements since the early-1800s – the ‘Don Pancho’ minute repeater from the 1930s sold last year at Phillips for CHF 600,000 (approx. £466,000), while two years ago the brand presented Les Cabinotiers Symphonia Grande Sonnerie 1860, its first wrist-worn grande sonnerie that strikes hours and quarters automatically. La Musique du Temps also pays homage to the links between music and time, represented by the brand’s ongoing partnership with London’s fabled Abbey Road Studios.

One of the most complex of all watch functions, only a small group of watchmakers are capable of making a chiming timepiece. “The tone is influenced by so many factors,” says Perves. “The volume of the case, the material it is made from, the derivation of sound and how the movement is mounted, all have an effect. So much human intervention is involved in assembly and adjustment that every watch is unique.”

For this reason, Vacheron Constantin felt that the sound of each 2019 Les Cabitoniers chiming watch deserved to be captured, and this is where the Abbey Road partnership and the studios’ world-class engineers came into their own. “Of course, we have recorded repeaters before,” says Perves.

“But we have never had access to such advanced technology. Now that Abbey Road has recorded and analysed the watch chimes, we have a precise record so, when a client brings their watch to be serviced, we can make sure that we keep the initial tone – the one they like and are used to.”

Announcing the Abbey Road partnership last year, Vacheron Constantin’s ‘One of Not Many’ campaign was shot at the venue, while the famous Studio Two was used to record the time-inspired composition Eternity by friend of Vacheron, Benjamin Clementine.

According to Jeremy Huffelmann, head of partnerships at Abbey Road, “we were struck by the similarity in our respective values, both being defined by excellence, craftsmanship and a unique balance of science and creativity” and it was at this point that talks began on the possibility of recording chiming watches at Abbey Road.

With 21 years’ experience at the studios, senior recording engineer Andrew Dudman helmed the project, admitting that recording watches was a first for him and also for Abbey Road Studios, meaning some trial and error was involved.

“Our priority was to ensure we captured the sound of the timepieces, rather than the room and surroundings, so it was essential that we created the quietest possible recording environment and Studio Two [where the majority of tracks by The Beatles were recorded] was the perfect choice,” he says.

“The main challenge was isolating the chime from any extraneous noises, so we used highly sensitive microphones with high signal to noise ratio. You can hear every detail, including breathing, so Vacheron Constantin’s watchmaker had to hold his breath after he had triggered the chime on every take.

“We had a microphone on the watch itself to capture the high frequency direct noise, super low-noise DPA mics to capture all the detail, and we also experimented with a variety of vintage mics. So, it really was a case of trying various options and seeing which ones worked best.”

More used to recording people than static objects, Dudman found the watches came with their own set of challenges. “Because they are mechanical devices, when we were recording there would be tiny differences in each chime,” he explains.

“So, in a sense, every chime was a performance in its own right; a unique moment to capture. As no two chimes are exactly the same, it was similar to recording live musicians in that we would do multiple takes in order to capture the one we wanted. And the result was ultimately very rewarding.”

For Perves, the project was a magical story that has a technical ending mixed with emotion along the way – an  important part of any watch journey. But, while there is certainly an emotional aspect of the watches being recorded in a studio that has played host to the greatest artists of the past half-century including Pink Floyd, Oasis and Adele, as well as The Beatles, the contribution of Abbey Road’s engineers was so much more.

When asked what they brought to the project, Perves is emphatic: “Everything. The capability to record and deliver a graphic representation of the sound waves is astonishing and a first for Vacheron Constantin. This is authentic, technology-backed recording.

“Our master watchmaker went to Abbey Road with the watches and there was a genuine exchange of skills and discussions about propogation, resonance and how sound waves are heard by different people. What we have learnt will have an impact on how we work in the future. These people are experts in sound and they have made us think, ‘what if…’”

And it seems that Abbey Road gained as much from the exercise as the watchmakers. The watches in Les Cabinotiers have different resonances and lengths of chime and Dudman refers to the “personality” of the pieces, saying: “Each watch is unique, rather than being generic digital samples that a lot of musicians use these days. In that sense it is like recording an artist as every take and every performance is truly different and unlike any other. It was a privilege to capture these chimes for posterity.”

For now, the recordings will be archived at Abbey Road Studios, preserved in their entirety as a record of this special partnership, but Dudman says that this may not be the last we hear of them. “Given the tonality of the chimes, it would be great to one day see them incorporated into a piece of new music in some way, and that is something we are keen to explore further in the future.”