Under the Loupe/Watch Escapements
An escapement is the rate-controlling mechanism of a timekeeper. It is the device in a timepiece that checks the motion of the going train and transmits the energy provided by the power accumulator (mainspring) to the regulating organ.
The first recorded escapement was made by I-Hsing, a Chinese monk, in A.D. 725. It was called the 'celestial balance' and was employed to control a water clock.
The earliest mechanical escapement was the verge and foliot, which is thought to have been invented in the fourteenth century. Many variaties of escapement have since been invented, the most common being the anchor escapement for pendulum clocks and the lever escapement for both clocks and watches with balances. The detent escapement is the escapement of choice for marine chronometers.
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