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The Encyclopedia of Horology

England · Early form associated with Tompion c. 1695; Graham's refined version from c. 1726

Cylinder Escapement

Historical attribution

The cylinder escapement enabled noticeably slimmer pocket watches than the verge and remained in mass production (particularly for lower- and mid-priced watches) well into the 19th century, before being displaced by the lever escapement.

The cylinder escapement replaces the verge's crown wheel and pallets with a slotted steel or ruby cylinder mounted on the balance staff, through which the escape-wheel teeth pass alternately, giving a flatter movement than the verge and allowing thinner watches.

George Graham is credited with developing the escapement into a reliable, commercially viable form, and it was subsequently manufactured in very large numbers, particularly by French and Swiss makers through the 18th and 19th centuries.

How to verify this yourself

No single modern-style patent specification exists for this pre-1852 English mechanism; verify attribution and dating against horological history references and dated surviving examples in museum catalogues rather than trade folklore.

Manufacturers known to have used it

  • Many French and Swiss établissage houses, 18th–19th centuries
  • some English makers

Related photographs

Chinese movement escapement and jewels
Chinese movement escapement and jewels — Hustvedt, CC BY-SA 3.0. Wikimedia Commons file page
Lever of a Watch Lever Escapement
Lever of a Watch Lever Escapement — Micky Aldridge from Finland, CC BY 2.0. 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. Britten, F. J., Old Clocks and Watches and Their Makers
  2. Antiquarian Horological Society, published research on the cylinder escapement

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