Bell Hora – blue

Once an hour, without being asked, this watch chimes. Exactly once. Then it goes quiet again until the next hour comes around.

The MeisterSinger Bell Hora revives a nearly forgotten complication, the sonnerie au passage, or passing strike. It is not a repeater and there is nothing to trigger: a module coupled to the minute wheel accumulates energy across the full hour and releases it at the top of the hour as a single, well-dosed strike against a sound fork behind the dial. It never counts the hour. The pusher at 2 o'clock silences the chime rather than calling for it, pushed in for sound and pulled out for quiet, with a black ring on the shaft marking silent mode.

The blue dial version sits in a 43 mm stainless steel case, 13 mm tall, on a cognac leather strap with 20 mm lugs. One long needle hand shows the hour, its position between numerals showing how far through it you are, against a scale divided every five minutes. The calibre is the MS Bell, a Sellita SW200 base with MeisterSinger's modifications and an integrated striking module, 38 hours, 5 bar.

Introduced in 2021 and a Red Dot Design Award winner, it is a strange and rather lovely thing to live with.

Perfect for: chiming watch collectors, blue dial single-hand watches, unusual complication seekers.