anchor escapement

noun

Horology.

1. an escapement in which wedge-shaped pallets engage with an escape wheel having pointed teeth, usually facing in the direction of revolution, so that the escape wheel recoils slightly at every release.

Word History and Origins

Origin of anchor escapement¹

First recorded in 1850–55

Example Sentences

The company’s Marine Chronometer Manufacture features a new in-house movement, the UN-118 Caliber, with an anchor escapement made of a material dubbed DIAMonSIL, a composite of silicon and synthetic diamond.

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Anchor escapement mechanisms, most commonly used in Swiss mechanical watches, regulate timekeeping using a mechanism that generates friction and must therefore be lubricated.

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The in-house caliber has an anchor escapement produced using DiamonSil, an alliance of diamond and silicon.

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The anchor escapement, unlike the verge escapement he had been using in his pendulum clocks, allowed the pendulum to swing in such a small arc that maintaining a cycloidal pathway became unnecessary.

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The celebrated English clockmaker Thomas Tompion—and, subsequently, his successor, George Graham—later mod­i­fied the anchor escapement to operate without recoil.

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