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The Encyclopedia of Horology

Component record · Train

Intermediate Wheel

Partially verified

A wheel inserted to carry drive between two others.

What it does

Transfers motion where direct meshing is impossible or the wrong direction.

How it works

Adding a wheel reverses direction and allows the designer to place components where space permits.

Each added mesh costs a little efficiency, so numbers are kept to the minimum.

Evolution

Widely used in automatic winding and calendar work.

Known variations

  • Train intermediate wheel
  • Winding intermediate wheel

Identification for collectors

  • Identified by its position in a calibre diagram rather than by form.

Common failure modes

  • Worn pivots
  • Incorrect depthing after reassembly

Related photographs

Going barrel
Going barrel — Frederick J. Britten, Public domain. Wikimedia Commons file page

No confidently matched photograph of this subject has been found yet. These photographs show a closely related record, and are not examples of the type described on this page.

Sources & references

  1. de Carle, D., Practical Watch Repairing
  2. de Carle, D., Watch and Clock Encyclopedia
  3. Daniels, G., Watchmaking

Where sources disagree, the disagreement is stated rather than resolved silently.