Lever escapement and other parts out of harder materials than steel, eliminating the need for lubrication. Materials being tried include silicon, nickel phosphorus, diamond, and diamond-on-silicon. Ulysse Nardin in 2001, Patek Philippe in 2005, and Zenith (watchmaker) in 2013 introduced watches with silicon escape wheels. Lever escapement The lever escapement, invented by British clockmaker Thomas Mudge in 1755, is a type of escapement that is used in almost all mechanical watches, as well as small mechanical non-pendulum clocks, alarm clocks, and kitchen timers. An escapement is a mechanical linkage that gives pushes to the timepiece's balance wheel, keeping it rotating back and
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 Then in the 19th century both were superseded by the lever escapement which has been used almost exclusively ever since.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