Complication
Alarm
A mechanical buzzer on your wrist.
What it does
A second mainspring drives a hammer that strikes a pin, gong or the caseback itself, producing a buzz rather than a chime. You set the alarm with a separate crown or an inner rotating disc, and it is the only mechanical complication that makes a sound purely to interrupt you.
How to read it
The alarm hand or inner disc points to the wake time. Wind the alarm barrel with its own crown — most run for around 15 seconds. On many watches the buzz is amplified by a resonating caseback, so it is much louder off the wrist than on it.
Impact on value
Positive — mechanically interesting and comparatively rare. Vintage Jaeger-LeCoultre Memovox and Vulcain Cricket models have a devoted following.
Keep reading
- Complication
Minute Repeater
Chimes the time on demand, to the minute.
- Complication
Small Seconds
A seconds hand on its own sub-dial.
- Complication
Jumping Hour
The hour snaps into a window instead of sweeping.
- Complication
Split-Seconds (Rattrapante)
Times two events at once with stacked seconds hands.
- Style
Dive Watch
Built to be legible and watertight deep underwater.
- Style
Dress Watch
Thin, understated, and made to slip under a cuff.