Escapement a statue of an angel to follow the sun, the consensus is that this was not an escapement. The first mechanical escapement, the verge escapement, was used in a bell ringing apparatus called an "alarum" for several centuries before it was adapted to clocks. In 14th-century Europe it appeared as the timekeeper in the first mechanical clocks, which were large tower clocks. Its origin and first use is unknown because it is difficult to distinguish which of these early tower clocks were mechanical, and which were water clocks. However, indirect evidence, such as a sudden increase in cost and construction
Escapement patented it in 1782. The early forms had two escape wheels. The duplex escapement was difficult to make but achieved much higher accuracy than the cylinder escapement, and could equal that of the (early) lever escapement and when carefully made was almost as good as a detent escapement. It was used in quality English pocketwatches from about 1790 to 1860, In the duplex, as in the chronometer escapement to which it has similarities, the balance wheel only receives an impulse during one of the two swings in its cycle. The escape wheel has two sets of teeth (hence the name