Comments:
Any watchmaker decorating or finishing the pallet fork ?
I have taken macro photo of moser watches with pallet fork in gold… any another watchmaker have their pallet fork special ?
Are you certain the pallet fork is gold?
It doesn't appear to be and I would suspect it would be a poor choice of material for such a functional part. Typically they are nickel-plated brass, and one that is 'yellowish" in colour could be due to thin plating.
(This one looks yellow, but not all yellow metals are gold. It's brass.)
Gold is probably the worst possible pallet fork material
Moving parts that are frequently stopped should be as light as possible. Hence the frequent use of silicon these days.
Looking around, it may indeed be gold:
en.worldtempus.com
"A particularly hard white gold alloy is accordingly used in this escapement assembly for the pallet fork and the escape wheel."
But it doesn't sound like they do it because it's a good material, but because they just toss the whole escapement when they service:
"watches of the new era have all been equipped with the interchangeable escapement assembly and the pallet forks and escapement wheels are once again being manufactured in gold."
To me, that's another reason I will add to my existing list for avoiding one... What if Moser wasn't around or they stopped making the replacement escapement? Your watch would be toast. I don't see an advantage to using gold here. It doesn't add to the looks, but likely reduces longevity and makes service forced through the manufacturer because the escapement is entirely replaced, not repaired.
Unless I am missing something?
"A particularly hard white gold alloy is accordingly used in this escapement assembly for the pallet fork and the escape wheel."
But it doesn't sound like they do it because it's a good material, but because they just toss the whole escapement when they service:
"watches of the new era have all been equipped with the interchangeable escapement assembly and the pallet forks and escapement wheels are once again being manufactured in gold."
To me, that's another reason I will add to my existing list for avoiding one... What if Moser wasn't around or they stopped making the replacement escapement? Your watch would be toast. I don't see an advantage to using gold here. It doesn't add to the looks, but likely reduces longevity and makes service forced through the manufacturer because the escapement is entirely replaced, not repaired.
Unless I am missing something?
GF seems to maybe black polish the pallet fork?
From GaryG's recent article on photographing a GF:
GF the best finished watch
I’m not surprise if they does that… I hv not seen any other watches black polished as good as GF too
Thnx
It’s a short video … zoom in to view the pallet fork bouncing
Crop out for this discussion
Crop out for this discussion
Actually H.Moser makes me comfused about their movement.
I had a moser with gold escapement. But I noticed that some movements with same model don't have gold escapement. And the double hairspring as well. It seems like H.Moser uses gold escapement and double hairspring randomly on their movement?
Moser cutting down cost
New moser movement definitely cutting down cost
Screwed gold Chaton also missing nowadays
Screwed gold Chaton also missing nowadays