The mechanism that releases a mechanical watch's gear train in controlled steps and delivers energy to the balance.
Sitting between the gear train and the balance, the escapement holds the train still, releases it in small regular steps, and at each release passes a push of energy from the mainspring to the balance. In the Swiss lever escapement, the most common type today, a lever carries two jewel pallet stones that lock a tooth of the escape wheel. As the balance swings, a ruby impulse pin on its roller strikes the lever’s fork and frees the wheel. A tooth then slides along the impulse face of a pallet stone, pushing the lever, which passes that energy back through the impulse pin to the balance. The wheel then locks on the other stone.
The escapement does not set the rate. The balance and balance spring, the regulating organ, do that; the escapement keeps them swinging, though its condition can still disturb their regularity.
In job listings
Escapement appears in watchmaker and after-sales service roles, where overhauling and adjusting it is part of servicing a movement, and in specialist bench roles around the balance and spring. It also appears in research and development roles that model and simulate escapements numerically. See current escapement roles.
