Passing-strike watches
References in the Grail Atlas catalog carrying the passing-strike complication.
A passing strike sounds the hour by itself. No slide, no button: the hour arrives and the watch marks it, which makes it the only complication that interrupts you rather than waiting to be consulted. Watchmakers call it sonnerie au passage. It is mechanically simpler than a minute repeater, because it has one thing to say and one moment to say it, but it shares the hard part: a hammer, a gong, and a governor that has to release stored energy at a controlled speed without the escapement noticing. For most of its history it was priced with the grande sonnerie, its more elaborate relative. The Christopher Ward C1 Bel Canto broke that in 2022 by putting a chiming module on a Sellita base and selling it under $5,000, and the category still has very little between that watch and five figures.
A passing strike chimes once as each hour arrives, unprompted, which is what separates it from a repeater that stays silent until you operate a slide.
How the passing strike works: history, mechanism, parts required, and what makes it hard to build →
