Musical watches from Boegli: How a young Swiss company managed to revive an almost lost art

Watches that are capable of generating sounds are considered the epitome of mechanical fine watchmaking. In particular repetition movements, which chime the time at fixed intervals, are witnesses to what high Swiss watchmaking art is capable of due to their exclusivity and complexity. However, only very few people can afford to pay high five-digit or often six-digit sums for them.

The Swiss watch brand Boegli also focuses on acoustics on the wrist, albeit in a slightly different way: With its musical watches, the company keeps a centuries-old tradition alive. The appeal undoubtedly lies in the interplay of sounds and mechanics, which not appeals to audiophiles and tech enthusiasts alike. In fact, the first musical watches were made well over 200 years ago, although this rare craft is becoming increasingly rare today.

Crystal clear sound on the wrist

After the company’s foundation in 2000, Boegli embarked on a large-scale project, requiring a great deal of know-how and technical savvy. On the one hand, the watches were to be innovative in their mechanical functioning, i.e. to have a music-playing movement coupled to a mechanical movement. The design, on the other hand, is more traditional in nature, just like the musical pieces the watches can play. Always keen to deliver the best possible product, Boegli has thus developed a manufacturing system that makes the sound of its movements as crystal clear as possible.

What was originally intended for the production of pocket watches eventually also found its way into wristwatches, after about 10 years in business. A special feature here is that – in addition to music – the brand is also trying to revive other ancient crafts such as painting, sculpture and engraving, namely in the form of custom-made watches. More concretely put, artists at the Boegli studios are able to hand-paint dials or to do custom engraving, depending on what the customer wants. For these one-offs, the production time can quickly reach six months and more.

The mechanical watches, all powered by high-quality Swiss calibers, play some of the world’s most famous melodies, such as Verdi’s “Aida”, Mozart’s “The Magic Flute”, Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons” or Beethoven’s “Für Elise”. For that purpose, each wristwatch features a crown at the 3 o’clock position to wind the musical movement and a crown at the 9 o’clock position to set the time. The mechanical musical movement can be wound with its very own crown and observed via an aperture on the dial. This allow the wearer to have a look at the intricate and fascinating inner workings, all while listening to some of the world’s most well-known melodies being artistically played.

Boegli Watches at Montredo

For years, Boegli has been the to-go specialist in wristwatches with mechanical musical movements. The brand’s collections are not only aimed at lovers of beautiful mechanical watches and timeless music, but also revive a centuries-old craft.

Considering the amount of handcraft and technical expertise needed, the watches still come with a wallet-friendly price tag: The average price of a Boegli pocket watch is around 1,800 CHF, while wristwatches are prices at around 3,500 CHF. For bespoke watches the price is of course somewhat higher, depending on the level of customization.

A large selection of Boegli watches is available under the following link in our Montredo store.

This is a sponsored article by Montredo for Boegli.