Strike mode selector for a watch or timepiece

A striking mechanism for a watch or timepiece comprising a movement, said striking mechanism including at least one reference wheel set arranged to be driven by a said movement and wherein at least one said reference wheel set is an hour snail, at least one strike drive wheel set including a detent ratchet and a repeating rack pinion, said striking mechanism including at least one pivoting part, arranged to cooperate indirectly with an output of a said movement, including a feeler arm for reading a said reference wheel set and a rack for driving said repeating rack pinion, one of said pivoting parts being an hour-rack arranged to cooperate with said hour snail, said striking mechanism further including main click arranged to be set in motion at each passing strike and to drive said detent ratchet, and said striking mechanism being able to operate in at least two distinct strike modes including a silent mode, wherein said striking mechanism includes a mode selector mechanism, comprising a user-accessible selector which allows the user to choose which strike mode to use, and which controls the angular position of at least one cam, which has specific positions for different modes, said cam including a continuous, external, feeler arm support profile, arranged to cooperate with a beak comprised in a silencing lever, and which includes an area of larger radius corresponding to said silent mode, arranged to orient said silencing lever into a position wherein a main arm of said silencing lever moves said main click away from said detent ratchet, in order to disable every passing strike in silent mode, wherein said mode selector mechanism includes at least one said flat cam, which includes notched portions each corresponding to one of the selectable modes, and wherein said notched portions correspond to notches of variable size, requiring increasing force in one of the two directions of operation.