A striking mechanism is for a watch or music box that includes a vibration plate with optimised actuation energy. The striking mechanism includes a plurality of cantilevered strips. These strips are each made of a material of Young's modulus E and of density p satisfying the inequality:
All of the strips (2) each satisfy the relation:
where b is the width, L the length, δ the travel, f the frequency and U the actuation energy of the strip, U being greater than or equal to 20 microwatts, and the strips (2) are arranged to vibrate between 800 Hz and 4000 Hz.