United Kingdom · Patented in the 1970s–1980s (Daniels developed and refined the mechanism over several years); adopted by Omega from 1999
Co-Axial Escapement
Partially verifiedThe first fundamentally new escapement to reach large-scale serial production in generations, and a case study in the difficulty of commercialising escapement innovation within an entrenched industry.
Daniels's co-axial escapement uses radially separated impulse and locking surfaces across two or three escape wheels/pallet levels, delivering impulse with a mostly radial (sliding-free) action intended to reduce the sliding friction — and hence lubrication dependency — of the conventional Swiss lever escapement.
After years of Daniels offering the design to Swiss manufacturers, Omega licensed and industrialised it from the late 1990s, first appearing in production Omega calibres from 1999.
How to verify this yourself
Daniels's patents can be searched by inventor name in the UK Intellectual Property Office database and the European Patent Office's Espacenet search tool; exact publication numbers are not asserted here pending that direct search.
Manufacturers known to have used it
- Omega (licensed, from 1999)
Related photographs
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
- Daniels, G., All in Good Time: Reflections of a Watchmaker (autobiography)
- Omega company published history of the co-axial escapement
Where sources disagree, the disagreement is stated rather than resolved silently.