Independents

Some of my (older) pictures to water your mouth...

 

are here. Let me start with the large seconds version:

Then, there is the spherical moon-phase watch, here still with the small seconds:




The movement is his very own cal. 33 movement. Note that the wheels are 18kt red gold (a special alloy!):



It contains his very own proprietary escapement. Its fundamental concept is the lack of compressing forces in action. So why is it so important to avoid these troublesome forces? Just make an experiment: Imagine you are working in your garden, just finished with harvesting a huge bunch of spring potatoes. All your potatoes are now collected in a huge wooden box. Now, how to get the box into your house? Try to push it - almost impossible! But, how about pulling the box? Yes, this might work. Now you already got the difference between compressing forces (push) and diverging forces (pull).

The latter ones are the forces Paul Gerber employed in his new Cal. 33 to drive the escapement. To enable the exclusive use of diverging forces, Paul Gerber had to separate the labour between impulse and stop. Consequently, the pallet wheel is separated into two coaxially located specialized wheels (resting wheel (1) and impulse wheel (2)). Three ruby stones, placed on the one pallet (3), act on the pallet wheels: the pallet’s two resting-rubies (4a, 4b) act on the large resting wheel (1), whereas the impulse-ruby (5) drives the balance (not shown) via the impulse wheel (2). This layout eliminates compressing forces and operates only with diverging impulses.

The complete sequence can be divided into entrance and exit positions. In the entrance position (left image), the pallet wheel rests because the entrance resting-ruby stops the resting wheel. The hairspring is tensed and drives the balance to swing back. This causes the entrance resting-ruby to release from the resting wheel. The pallet wheel springs forward with a small jump, driven by the power of the mainspring, until the resting wheel is stopped by the exit resting-stone.

Now, the exit position follows (right image) and the balance swings back again, and the exit resting-stone releases the resting wheel. Then the impulse wheel drives the impulse-stone, which in turn drives the pallet and the balance. This movement is manifest with a great jump of the second’s hand. The pallet turns until the entrance resting-stone blocks the pallet wheel again. From here, the whole sequence starts again – 10.800 times/hour, because the movement carries out 21.600 beats/hour.

There is much more to write about this.... Cheers, Magnus