Vulcain Alarm 1950s

Picked this one up recently at a very favorable price and overall I’m quite pleased with it. The watch is running well and timing on the timegrapher shows it averaging about 30 seconds per day, which I consider very respectable given the age and the fact that it’s a manual-wind movement.
The one mechanical issue is that the alarm hand is currently not functioning, so I plan to have that addressed during a future service. Otherwise, amplitude and beat appear stable and it’s been reliable on the wrist.
As for originality, I believe the dial is original, though I’m open to informed opinions. What caught my attention is that this dial configuration seems far less common than the more frequently seen Cricket variants—I personally haven’t encountered this exact dial layout often, if at all, until recently.
I’d appreciate any constructive thoughts, particularly from those who have handled similar examples or can comment on period-correct dial details.

Really interesting and great looking watch - what a nice dial. I can't recall seeing one before, great find.

Thanks buddy will keep you updated.

Thank you

Great question.It really sounds like bee buzzing sound and you can feel it vibrate. I read on one forum that this particular model as compared to the cricket had a louder sound for people with difficulty hearing. I'll try to post a video tomorrow of the sound.

Yeah just read that on the internet who know if its accurate I also have a lecoultre memovox.. its also pretty loud.

I've fixed up a handful of alarm movements now (A junk pin pallet, an A Schild 1568, which is very much like the cricket, and two Seiko Bellmatics). There is a second mainspring (though Omega memomatic uses the main mainspring, so no extra!) that has a little escapement on it that moves a hammer back and forth against SOMETHING very rapidly.

On the bellmatics, there is a flexible piece of metal that it hits, my pin pallet used a bell inside, and the Vulcain/AS movements have a 'pin' on the case back that it hits. For all of them, it causes an auditory and feelable 'buzz' on your wrist. I only wore the AS one for any amount of time, but it is VERY noticable both by feel and sound.



Here is a picture of the alarm movement on the AS, which is very much like the cricket I'm told. At the bottom of the movement you can see the 'hammer'. It has a small escapement-like setup with that toothed wheel next to it, powered by the mainspring you can see just to its right. (all parts on the movement).

There are parts dial side that prevent the hammer from moving in some way (usually a piece of flat spring steel that the hour wheel/alarm wheel press in the way for the 'not at time for alarm', and a lever to stop it in the 'alarm disabled' mode).

Generally, it'll unwind that mainspring until it is empty, or you press the 'off' button (usually pressing down on the alarm pusher/crown thing). You can get ~15-30s of alarm depending on the movement.

For a better set of pictures, I just found this that someone posted 😀 https://omegaforums.net/threads/tissot-sonorous-cal-780-aka-cal-as-1475.189677/

Same movement as the one I did, except I had the date.

OP. Yours is beautiful. Here is mine.

I’ve owned it so long that it’s been serviced twice.