Verge escapement St. Albans, was not a verge, but a variation called a 'strob' escapement. It consisted of a pair of escape wheels on the same axle, with alternating radial teeth. The verge rod was suspended between them, with a short crosspiece that rotated first in one direction and then the other as the staggered teeth pushed past. Although no other example is known, it is possible that this design preceded the more usual verge in clocks. For the first two hundred years or so of the mechanical clock's existence, the verge, with foliot or balance wheel, was the only escapement used
Mechanical watch the watch from its time source, the balance spring, watches could be built without a fusee and still be accurate. In the 18th century the original verge escapement, which required a fusee, was gradually replaced in better French watches with the cylinder escapement, and in British watches with the duplex escapement. Then in the 19th century both were superseded by the lever escapement which has been used almost exclusively ever since. A cheaper version of the lever, the pin lever escapement, patented in 1867 by Georges Frederic Roskopf was used in inexpensive watches until the 1970s. As manual-wound mechanical watches