Timeline  /  The gong spring
1783

The gong spring

Invention

In 1783 Abraham-Louis Breguet replaced the bell in a repeating watch with a coiled steel wire, the gong spring; every chiming watch since has used it.

A coiled steel gong spring with its small fixing block
A gong spring: the coiled steel wire and the block that fixes it to the movement. Not a 1783 original; Breguet’s own illustration of the component.Photograph: Breguet · used with credit · Breguet
The need
A repeating watch struck a small bell fitted inside the back of the case. The bell made the watch thick and the sound dull.
Made by
Abraham-Louis Breguet, Paris.
What was new
A hardened steel wire, coiled around the inside of the case and fixed at one end, struck by the hammer instead of a bell. The gong took almost no room and rang with a clearer, longer note.
Worth knowing
Every repeater and striking watch made since, from the 1892 wristwatch to today’s cathedral gongs, uses Breguet’s idea. The date comes from Breguet’s own archives.
Where it is now
No single first watch is identified; the invention is recorded in the Breguet archives, Paris.

SourcesBreguet

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