Minute Repeater

A elegant macOS menu bar application that chimes the current time using traditional watch minute repeater sounds. Inspired by luxury mechanical watches, this app announces the hours, quarter-hours, and minutes through beautiful audio chimes.

Features

• 🔔 Minute Repeater Chiming - Audibly announces the current time using three distinct chime sounds:

  • Low tone for hours
  • Double tone for quarter-hours (15 minutes)
  • High tone for additional minutes

• ⌨️ Keyboard Shortcut - Set a custom keyboard shortcut to trigger the chiming on demand

• 🚀 Launch at Login - Automatically start the app when you log in to macOS

• 🌐 Bilingual Support - Full localization in English and Simplified Chinese (简体中文)

• 🎯 Menu Bar Integration - Lightweight menu bar application that stays out of your way

• 🔒 Single Instance - Prevents multiple instances from running simultaneously

How It Works

The minute repeater follows the traditional watch complication pattern:

1. Hours: Chimes a low tone for each hour (12-hour format)
2. Quarters: Chimes a double tone for each 15-minute interval past the hour
3. Minutes: Chimes a high tone for each minute past the last quarter

Example

For 3:47:

• 3 low-tone chimes (3 hours)
• 3 double-tone chimes (45 minutes = 3 quarters)
• 2 high-tone chimes (2 additional minutes)

Requirements

• macOS 10.15 (Catalina) or later
• Xcode 15.0+ (for building from source)

Installation

Building from Source

1. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/huangcheng/SwiftMinuteRepeater.git
cd MinuteRepeater

2. Open the project in Xcode:

open MinuteRepeater.xcodeproj

3. Build and run the project (⌘R)

Usage

Triggering the Chime

1. Via Menu Bar: Click the menu bar icon and select "About" (or use ⌘A)
2. Via Keyboard Shortcut: Configure a custom shortcut in Settings and use it anytime

Settings

Click the menu bar icon and select "Settings" (or press ⌘,) to access:

• Launch at Login: Toggle automatic startup
• Chiming Shortcut: Set your preferred keyboard shortcut for triggering chimes

Keyboard Shortcuts

• ⌘, - Open Settings
• ⌘A - Trigger chiming (also mapped to About menu)
• ⌘Q - Quit application

Localization

MinuteRepeater supports the following languages:

• 🇺🇸 English
• 🇨🇳 简体中文 (Simplified Chinese)

The language automatically follows your system preferences, but can be customized through the app's localization settings.

Technical Details

Architecture

• SwiftUI - Modern declarative UI framework
• AVFoundation - Audio playback engine
• ServiceManagement - Launch at login functionality
• KeyboardShortcuts - Custom keyboard shortcut support (via KeyboardShortcuts library)

Audio Processing

The app uses a custom WaveRider class to:

1. Parse individual WAV audio files (hour, quarter, minute chimes)
2. Concatenate multiple audio samples dynamically
3. Generate a single composite WAV file for playback

This approach ensures seamless chiming without gaps or delays between sounds.

Project Structure

MinuteRepeater/
├── MinuteRepeater/
│   ├── MinuteRepeaterApp.swift    # Main app entry point
│   ├── WaveRider.swift             # Audio concatenation engine
│   ├── Constants.swift             # Keyboard shortcut definitions
│   ├── Localizable.xcstrings       # Localization strings
│   ├── Views/
│   │   └── SettingsView.swift     # Settings UI
│   └── Assets.xcassets/
│       ├── AppIcon.appiconset/    # App icons
│       ├── TrayIcon.imageset/     # Menu bar icon
│       └── Audio/                 # Chime sound files
│           ├── hour.wav
│           ├── quarter.wav
│           └── minute.wav
└── README.md

Dependencies

• KeyboardShortcuts - macOS library for recording and using keyboard shortcuts

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

License

The MIT License (MIT)

Acknowledgments

• Inspired by the mechanical minute repeater complication found in luxury timepieces
• Audio chimes designed to replicate traditional watch striking mechanisms

Author

Cheng Huang (@huangcheng)

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Made with ❤️ for horology enthusiasts