Pin-pallet Escapement - History

History

Roskopf used the escapement in his visionary project to manufacture a 'laborer's watch', a pocket watch, which would sell for less than a week's wages of an unskilled laborer. The innovative Roskopf watch, which came out in 1876, won awards and was widely imitated, being made in various forms until about 1925. In the USA, the escapement was used in cheap dollar watches. It continued to be used in cheap wristwatches when they gained popularity after World War I. To keep costs down, pin-pallet watches usually didn't have any jeweled bearings, using plain steel bearings instead, although sometimes one jewel was incorporated for advertising purposes. An exception is Timex and Oris who in the 1960s produced fully jeweled pin-pallet watches. By 1980 inexpensive quartz watches took over the market for low-end watches which pin pallet watches had dominated, and production ceased. Quartz technology is gradually replacing the last uses of pin pallet movements in timers and alarm clocks.

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