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The Encyclopedia of Horology

Pocket watches · Escapement

Lever-Escapement Pocket Watches

Verified

Pocket watches regulated by a detached lever escapement, the design that eventually displaced verge, cylinder and duplex work almost entirely.

Mechanism

The escape wheel is locked by the pallets except during a brief unlocking and impulse phase each half-vibration; the balance is otherwise detached from the train, giving good isochronism and robustness.

Typical characteristics

  • Pivoted pallet lever with two jewelled pallet stones
  • Fork and impulse-pin action on the balance roller
  • English (right-angle) or Swiss (straight-line) pallet layouts

Identification characteristics

  • Pallet fork visible under the balance when the balance cock is lifted
  • Right-angle English pallets versus straight-line Swiss/American layout

Collector significance

The dominant mechanical watch escapement for over two centuries and the basis of virtually all factory production after 1880.

Known variations

  • English lever
  • Swiss (straight-line) lever
  • Pin-pallet lever

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. Gazeley, W. J., Clock and Watch Escapements

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