We wanted to share a little bit of the back story about how we reverse-engineered the traditional English lever escapement for our Project 248 watches, which hasn’t been used commercially in over a century.
When we started the development of our first in-house calibre, we sought inspiration from the types of watchmaking we knew best. An escapement that had fallen out of commercial use over a century beforehand might seem like an unusual choice, but for us as restorers, with a passion for antiquarian horology, it was one of the mechanisms we had the most experience with. The first detected lever escapement was invented in London by fellow Englishman Thomas Mudge in 1754. The English lever, its commercial adaptation, quickly became the escapement of choice for fine watchmakers during the late 18th and 19th centuries. It wasn’t until the introduction of the Swiss lever, along with Swiss domination of the industry, that the old English lever fell out of favour and was resigned to the history books.
It was through studying those history books, together with original examples from our extensive movement archive, that we were able to bring the English lever back to life in our new Project 248 watches. These pictures show some of those books, together with a 150-year old reference example, and our brand new tributes. We’re proud to be the only workshop in the world manufacturing this escapement in our commercial watchmaking.
