The Detente Escapement Explained

timeandwatches.com

13 points·herodotus··5 comments

In case anyone else loves mechanical watches and want to see the latest advances in escapement design: https://youtu.be/VdoorKat1e0

I find it very interesting that the industry seems to be adopting a lot of techniques borrowed from the semiconductor industry to design and implement silicon based mechanism that look like they were built using lithograph techniques.

One of the best animations I have seen. Although I am still left with one question: how come the impulse pallet misses the escapement tooth in one direction, but engages it in the other? This has puzzled me ever since I saw a cutout version at a watch exhibition at the Imperial Science Museum in London.

If you look at the second animation closely you can see that there's a piece of spring steel one one side. In the animation it's only a 1-or-so pixel line. But that piece of spring steel open in one direction, but in the other direction it's stiff enough it will push the arm instead of bending.

The animation in the article is too fast to see what's happening. The impulse pallet misses the stationary escapement tooth in both directions. During the short period the escapement wheel is moving, it pushes the pallet, giving the balance wheel a push.

Here's a working model in slow motion.[1] Notice the escapement wheel pushing the impulse pallet. Not the other way round.

[1] https://youtu.be/JSNDjuKPdng?t=102

Incorrect title: “Detent” is not “Detente”

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