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A balance wheel, or balance, is the timekeeping device used in mechanical watches and small clocks, analogous to the pendulum in a pendulum clock.It is a weighted wheel that rotates back and forth, being returned toward its center position by a spiral torsion spring, known as the balance spring or hairspring.
The going train in a modern clock or watch consists of: First or great wheel attached and ratcheted to the main spring, or cable, barrel. The ratchet allows the main spring or cable barrel to be wound without turning the wheel. In horology jargon the pawl of the ratchet is called "the click". The first wheel turns the pinion of the center wheel.
These watches were called jerking watches because, even with buffers, when the weight hit the case the whole watch would jerk. Center-weight The weight pivots in the center of the movement and rotates clockwise and anti-clockwise. The weight is supported by a bridge that blocks the rotation and it is limited to about 180°. [15]
In watch movements the wheels and other moving parts are mounted between two plates, which are held a small distance apart with pillars to make a rigid framework for the movement. One of these plates, the front plate just behind the face, is always circular, or the same shape and dimensions as the movement.
Jewel bearing of a balance wheel, supported by a lyre-shaped spring. The Incabloc shock protection system is the trade name for a spring-loaded mounting system for the jewel bearings that support the balance wheel in a mechanical watch, to protect the wheel's delicate pivots from damage in the event of physical shock, such as if the watch is dropped.
The hand-winding movement of a Russian watch. A mechanical watch is a watch that uses a clockwork mechanism to measure the passage of time, as opposed to quartz watches which function using the vibration modes of a piezoelectric quartz tuning fork, or radio watches, which are quartz watches synchronized to an atomic clock via radio waves.
Animation of an anchor escapement, widely used in pendulum clocks. An escapement is a mechanical linkage in mechanical watches and clocks that gives impulses to the timekeeping element and periodically releases the gear train to move forward, advancing the clock's hands.
It is also possible for quartz clocks and watches to have their quartz crystal oscillate at a higher frequency than 32 768 (= 2 15) Hz (high frequency quartz movements [4]) and/or generate digital pulses more than once per second, to drive a stepping motor powered second hand at a higher power of 2 than once every second, [5] but the electric ...