How does a mechanical movement work? (this is how your timepiece ticks)
A mechanical movement is the epitome of perfection. Every particle, no matter how small, has its function and contributes to the greater whole. If even one component is not flawless, the whole movement may not work.
Of course, there are also quartz movements, which run on a battery. These are very accurate and are not nearly as complicated to manufacture.
But this complexity, which is behind a mechanical movement, is exactly what makes it so ingenious. It is exactly that, which attracts many first into the spell of the mechanical clocks. It is the fascination of how many small particles are put together so perfectly that a large autonomous mechanism is created.
A mechanical movement is wound by hand or it winds itself by the built-in rotors. Initially, this causes the spring in the barrel to tension, and this tension is transferred to the gear train, which sets it in motion. The movement ultimately makes the action visible and moves the hands on the dial. The escapement is the heart and clocks the energy that is released on the movement.
The mechanical movement explained in detail
First of all, it is important to know that watch movements can be powered in different ways. Thus, there are different types of movements.
There is the electromechanical movement, for one. In this case, a battery supplies the movement with energy.
But the king of movements is the mechanical movement. These movements are designed to either wind themselves through a rotor or be wound by hand at the crown. But it never requires a battery.
Energy supply through the spring
A mechanical movement receives its energy to keep moving via the mainspring.
In a self-winding watch, you first turn the crown. This moves the barrel via a winding stem, the winding wheels and a ratchet wheel. The mainspring core, which tensions the mainspring, rotates in the barrel. The aforementioned ratchet wheel stores the energy generated in the barrel with the ratchet, which consists of a spring and a pawl.
At the same time, the mainspring barrel then transfers this energy to the spring mechanism via a gear wheel, which then makes the watch run.
With automatic movements, things work a little differently. Here, the wearer does not have to worry about anything and the entire winding process happens autonomously. The automatic movement features a rotor with a ball bearing at the bottom of the watch. This rotor winds the watch solely through movement when worn.
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The gears get moving
When the spring is tensioned and the barrel is ready to release energy, the wheel train starts running. The wheel train usually consists of three important components: the escape wheel, the minute wheel, and the second wheel.
The gear train is also known as the walking train.
The gearing already starts at the barrel. This engages with the minute wheel and supplies the movement with energy. The movement of a watch consists of many different gears that are connected to each other.
It all starts with the mainspring barrel, which supplies energy. The minute wheel of the movement carries the minute hand and starts to run.
The third wheel connects the minute wheel to the fourth wheel, which turns once a minute.
It's important to note that everything primarily revolves around the minute hand, and the hour hand is merely a decelerated addition that was mounted on the minute hand through additional gears.
The second hand, which logically moves much faster, is again mounted autonomously.
The gear train also serves as a direction changer so that the fourth wheel turns clockwise.
At the same time, the fourth wheel engages the escape wheel, which is part of the escapement and controls the stepwise movement of the wheels.
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The escapement
The escapement is a central function in the movement. Simply put, it is responsible for braking the mechanism and giving the movement its rhythm, so that the movement, for example, does not keep getting faster.
If there were no escapement, the mainspring would discharge unchecked. First of all, the gained energy would be gone immediately, and the hands would move incredibly fast. The function of the time indicators would then be invalid.
Therefore, it needs an escapement that brakes the energy from the spring and releases it to the movement in a controlled manner. Only in this way is an hour really an hour and not, for example, 66 minutes. In this sense, one could also refer to the escapement as the heart of a mechanical watch.
The entire mechanism consists of the escape wheel, the pallet, the balance wheel and the hairspring inside it.
The escape wheel and the balance play a central role. The escape wheel is driven by the fourth wheel and is blocked by the pallet. When the pressure in the wheel train is high enough, a tooth of the escape wheel moves past the anchor and transmits an impulse to the balance. This causes the balance wheel to oscillate. The armature again blocks the escape wheel and the balance swings out and is pulled back.
This cycle then repeats itself continuously and ensures that the movement moves evenly.
This creates a rhythm that we are all familiar with. Namely, the second hand turns on its axis in 60 seconds and the minute hand in 60 minutes.
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The hand movement finalizes the watch movement
But a watch only becomes truly functional with the hand movement.
It takes care of the precise display of the time on the dial.
The handset is located under the dial and is adjusted from the outside via the crown. It basically makes the entire work of the movement visible on the dial and transforms the watch into a precise timepiece.
When you want to adjust the watch, a clutch separates the hand movement from the rest of the mechanism when you press the crown, so you can easily change the time without affecting the movement.
Often, complications are also controlled from this time movement, which we will discuss later.
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Revolutions in the art of watchmaking
Now you know the process of a mechanical movement in its "simple" form. But there are numerous inventions and additions, which had a significant influence on watchmaking. Here are just two of the important examples.
The Co-Axial escapement from Omega
For a very long time, the movements were timed in the same way with the anchor escapement. This was invented in the 18th century by George Graham and further developed by his student Thomas Mudge.
After a quarter of a century, a modern day watchmaker, George Daniels came up with the idea of questioning the lever escapement.
Overall, he was convinced by the conventional anchor escapement. However, he noticed a major criticism. The lever surfaces on the escapement were insufficiently lubricated.
However, the escapement is subject to sliding friction when the escape wheel conducts the impulse over the pallets of the armature. This simply creates too much friction. A solution was needed.
George Daniels was inspired by the existing chronometer escapement. With this escapement, the escapement wheel transfers the impulse to the balance wheel with every whole oscillation and not with every half oscillation, as is the case with the lever escapement.
This impulse is only transferred tangentially. This means that there is no radial force movement, which means that there is no friction.
George Daniels then finally transferred this principle to his new creation, the Co-Axial escapement, and significantly influenced the world of watchmaking.
In the meantime, the modern Co-Axial movement is built into every new watch from Omega.
The Dual Impulse Escapement from Grand Seiko
The brand Grand Seiko also achieved a truly groundbreaking success. Because with the 9SA5 movement, which has the Dual-Impulse Escapement, Grand Seiko has also revolutionized the watch world.
This not only replaces the heart of the watch, the pallet lever movement, but also makes the movement 30 percent more effective overall.
Grand Seiko has used the Dual-Impulse Escapment to switch the impulses more intelligently and ultimately ensure less friction.
We've already written a post where we explain in great detail exactly how Grand Seiko's Dual-Impulse Escapment works.
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The big world of complications
So now we understand how the raw version of a mechanical movement works, just the time display, so to speak. But what many find most fascinating about mechanical watches are the many different functions that some watches offer. These are the so-called complications.
A complication is indeed an extremely elaborate additional function in mechanical watches. Some complications can measure time, others can display the phases of the moon.
We'll explain a few of the most famous and popular complications to give you a little insight into the world of complications.
Tourbillon
At the forefront is the tourbillon.
Gravity distorts the accuracy of watches by a little. This is because the pallet lever movement becomes inaccurate if it is constantly in the same position.
You can think of the tourbillon as a kind of cage that houses the anchor movement. This cage rotates parallel to the second hand once around its own axis, every 60 seconds. Thus, gravity always affects a different part of the pallet lever movement and the inaccuracy due to gravity can be cancelled out.
As a result, you get a much more position-independent rate accuracy.
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Chronograph
Another very popular complication is the chronograph. With this, you get a stopwatch in a normal watch. It's basically a 2-in-1 deal.
The big challenge with this complication is the time display during the stopping process. After all, the normal movement must continue to run normally and display the time while you stop the time.
The chronograph may seem simple on the outside, since it "only" measures the time, but it requires an additional gear train to measure the time while the watch is running.
This makes the technology behind a chronograph extremely sophisticated and refined.
We've already dedicated a detailed post to this complication as well, in case you're more interested in the chronograph.
Perpetual Calendar
One of the most remarkable complications of all might be the perpetual calendar.
This is capable of always showing the correct date, day of the week, month, and year in which one finds oneself. It can even take leap years into account.
You never have to set the perpetual calendar yourself, if it doesn't stop.
It works by using a special program wheel that lets you program in leap year cycles, so the clock recognizes when you're in a leap year.
Mostly, the perpetual calendars always have to be set once at the turn of the century, because then there is always a leap year.
But there are also perpetual calendars that can even take this into account and literally run forever.
If we have now aroused curiosity, you can find a detailed article on the perpetual calendar here.
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Q&A
How does a mechanical movement work?
The mainspring in the barrel is tensioned by winding or by a rotor. This energy is transferred to the movement and finally transmitted to the dial via the hands. The escapement brakes the energy and clocks the movement.
What is a complication?
A complication is an additional technical function that is very elaborate and provides an extra benefit in addition to showing the normal time.
What is the most important component of a mechanical movement?
The most important component is the escapement, which is the heart of the movement and distributes the energy from the mainspring barrel evenly and at the correct rate to the rest of the movement.
Scource cover image: Rolex
About the author
Alexander Weinberger
For me, the most fascinating thing about watches is the interplay between precise craftsmanship and artistic development. In a watch movement, hundreds of small parts have to be put together precisely so that they form a large whole.
