Introduction

At the beginning of 2011, I took up watchmaking/repairing as a hobby not only to make some money towards my very first watch, but to better understand the inner workings of these mechanical wonders. Taking up watchmaking was truly when my passion for watches began. I've come to appreciate the incredible finishes of haute horlogerie along with the numerous complications that the world of horology has to offer because I began to realize the sheer amount of time that goes into each and every hand-made timepiece.

I decided to create this blog to share my passion with my fellow horology enthusiasts and to document the projects that I will undertake on the path to my very first watch.

Thanks for taking a visit and I hope you enjoy what I've done!

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

A Nice Surprise - Duplex Escapement

I bought an R.F. Cowderoy pocket watch movement a couple months ago for cheap - $25 (and free shipping). I hadn't thought much of it except that it would be an easy fix and a quick chance to double or triple my money.

Fast-forward to this week... I finally had a chance to take the movement apart. The moment I unscrewed the balance cock, I heard the whizzing of the gears as they turned to release the energy wound up in the mainspring. Uh oh... I thought for sure I had broken a piece. Normally, the pallet fork in lever escapements would prevent that fast release of energy - which is usually bad news as that puts unnecessary stress on the gears and pinions. I quickly unscrewed the balance, and much to my surprise, this movement didn't have a normal lever escapement at all.

I stumbled upon a rare gem.


A duplex escapement peeked through the movement, and I knew that this $25 movement was easily worth more than ten times that. The quality of the movement also showed through in that the pieces went together absolutely perfectly. Once I had the gear train all placed in the main plate, all the pinions fit into their respective jewels the moment I rested the top plate on the parts - made my life a whole lot easier.




I had been travelling for two months this summer, so unfortunately haven't had as much time to fix watches. But with about a month left till going back to college, hopefully I'll be able to restore a few more interesting pieces and post them here.