This is a pretty cool idea from watchmaker Perrelet. I will lay it out for you talking about the key elements that make it so appealing. Deciphering the press release on this nice set up that Perrelet sent me was like deciphering translated ancient Sanskrit. Perrelet needs to spend a bit more time on the communication side of things, but that doesn’t detract from how cool this setup is.

Let’s start with The Tower, a system that incorporates two Swisskubik watch winders, and an iPod Nano (8GB) dock with integrated remote plus speakers. The speakers, which are part of the iPod dock is actually a Logitech Pure-Fi Anywhere system (with two internal speakers). The Tower is constructed from lacquered dark wood and brushed aluminum, and looks great with its mix of luxury, style, and tech, along with the speakers under the aluminum grill. This is the first convergence product between a digital audio player and a watch winder that I know of, and I am pretty keen on the concept.

The system comes with a black colored Apple iPod Nano (8GB), but not empty. A few pre-loaded audio files include sounds that the two mechanical audio watches emit. You see, both watches are chiming watches, but the noises they make, while pretty, are not very loud. The audio through the speakers replicates these charming sounds in a louder manner. As one of the watches is an alarm watch, it is likely possible to use the alarm function through the speaker system to have the same mechanical alarm noise act as a louder alarm. I’d love to hear the “songs” from either watch through the loud speaker, that would be really nice. The Tower can be plugged in with an included international adapter. The watch winders actually run on batteries, but they are re-chargeable and charged with the included adapter.

Now for the watches, which make up the Limited Edition Perrelet Maestro Collection. Both are newly styled 42mm wide steel case timepieces with a musical theme. The first watch is a Perrelet 5-Minute Repeater while the second watch is an Alarm. A minute repeater is a watch that chimes or plays back the time to you. In this instance, the Perrelet 5-Minute Repeater watch chimes a little symphony each 5 minutes. This complication can of course be turned off. The melody played by the 5-Minute Repeaters P-201 mechanical movement uses both high and low notes (multiple hammers in the movement).

The Perrelet Alarm watch is probably more function for everyday use and has an automatic Calibre P-121 movement. I have a feeling the minute repeater is manually wound, but it is nice that this alarm is self-winding. In addition to the alarm complication on the Alarm watch, it a day and date calendar complication. Although the watches are at home in The Tower, in the winders, they each come with special boxes as well.

The dial of both watches is meant to resemble a music sheet with the periphery of the dials having “piano keys” on them. The style also resembles the Jaeger LeCoultre Master Compressor collection of watches — which is a good thing. I am unclear whether the entire Maestro collection of watches as well as The Tower come together. Each watch is part of a limited edition of 50, and there are likely not many more of The Towers. The entire collection is likely to cost big bucks. Figure $7,000 – $15,000 per a watch, and at least $2,000 – $3,000 for The Tower. Contact Perrelet for more information.

See Perrelet watches on eBay here.

See Perrelet watches on Amazon here. [phpbay]perrelet, num, “14324”, “”[/phpbay]