The minute repeater is a brilliant invention from the 17th century and featured in the first pocket watches. That fact that it chimed out the time in tones had immense practical advantages, particularly at night, in an age when there was no electric light. Most of the work of perfecting the mechanism was carried out by Abraham Louis Breguet, who replaced the bells and tiny hammers with a space-saving spring gong. The mystical transformation of a phenomenon as sober and objective as time into a series of gentle tones is still a source of fascination ? and of genuine pleasure for watch devotees ? even today. The Portuguese Minute Repeater is an outstanding synthesis of old and modern watchmaking technology. Its movement is based on the original 95 calibre pocket watch movement of 1927, which in its time had impressed our two Portuguese businessmen, Rodrigues and Teixeira. The sonorous minute repeating mechanism chimes out the hours, quarters and minutes on two finely tuned gongs.