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
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 Then in the 19th century both were superseded by the lever escapement which has been used almost exclusively ever since.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