Insight: What’s Next for the Girard-Perregaux Constant Escapement?

Perfecting the ideal escapement.

In an era of modern and accessible digital technology, the utilitarian role of mechanical timekeepers has inevitably dwindled. Yet, it is still pursued as a luxury of an artform – either of the highest finishing by hand that can’t be performed by machines, or the research and development in making a mechanical timepiece – in particular wristwatches – as accurate as possible. 

One of these horological pursuits, to preserve the accuracy of mechanical wristwatches, is the supply of a constant force to the escapement. To isolate the varying torque as a mainspring gradually unwinds, some haute horlogerie watches today incorporate either a fusée-and-chain or a remontoir, which supplies a steady torque to the escapement for stable timekeeping. 

However, there is one particularly novel take on constant force released by Girard-Perregaux, in the form of a proprietary escapement. First unveiled as a prototype in SIHH 2008, the Girard-Perregaux Constant Escapement has a patented, double escape wheel system that is designed from the ground up to inherently have a built-in constant force system, thus eliminating the need of a remontoir or a fusée-and-chain.  

Despite being first created 15 years ago, Girard-Perregaux (GP) is still further developing the escapement today, with a new set of patented improvements publicly available – strongly hinting at a revamped model in the near future. These patents make it worth a deep dive into the original Constant Escapement (CE) from 2008, and how the new patents improve upon the base design – illustrating how an exotic escapement can still have many possible innovations over the course of continuous development. 

Bending cards 

The CE is the brainchild of Nicolas Déhon back in 1997, a watchmaker who was working with Rolex at the time. Inspired by the buckling action from bending a train ticket, he had the idea that a buckling blade spring can deliver a consistent force to drive an escapement. Thus, he filed a patent the following year and developed prototypes under Rolex, but couldn’t get them to work at the time with conventional metal springs due to the tight tolerances required.  

After joining GP in 2002, Mr. Déhon serendipitously revisited the CE concept a couple of years later. This is both due to Rolex withdrawing the original patent in 2004, and the introduction of silicon in watchmaking. With full support from GP, it was then finally that Mr. Déhon was able to construct a working prototype, which he then presented in SIHH 2008 and re-patented.  

It is noted that while Mr. Déhon had left GP in the same year, GP picked up where he left off and further optimised the prototype into a commercial wristwatch, which was eventually unveiled in 2013. Fundamentally however, this updated movement largely works similarly to the 2008 prototype and patent.  

Thus, the following writeup explores how the CE prototype works based on Mr. Déhon’s 2008 patent, EP2105806, which also applies to the commercially-released version of the CE wristwatch, and looks at the company’s most recent patents and what it might mean for them moving forward. 

The Constant Escapement explained 

Fundamentally, a watch’s movement stores large amounts of energy in a mainspring barrel, which then trickles down to the escapement via a set of wheels, the going train. The escapement collectively consists of the escape wheel and balance wheel, which regulates the release of energy from the mainspring barrel at a precise rate – this is the timekeeping accuracy of a movement. However, as the mainspring unwinds, eventually the torque it supplies to the escapement also decreases, which may affect the consistency of the escapement. 

Constant force devices act as a buffer between the varying torque of the mainspring, to minimise, or eliminate the effects of the torque fluctuation on the escapement. One solution is to install a fusée-and-chain into the mainspring barrel system, which regulates the varying torque via changing gear ratios akin to how a bicycle chain has multiple sprockets of different sizes. Another constant force approach is by installing a remontoir, which is an intermediate, smaller spring that acts as a buffer between the mainspring and the escapement. 

The CE however, inherently integrates a constant force device within the escapement itself – thus in theory, supplying consistent impulses to the balance wheel without any worry of uncertainties or variations occurring within the mainspring and going train. 

In summary, while the operation of the CE appears complex, it can be easier understood by looking at it as having two distinct parts – a twisting blade spring that stores and releases consistent force to the balance wheel by unbuckling, and a double escape wheel system that recharges the tension of the blade spring. 

The core idea of the CE is the buckling action of a beam structure. A simple analogy is the flexing of a playing card between your fingers, causing it to flex in an arch back and forth. More broadly speaking, such bending objects fall under an umbrella of devices known as compliant mechanisms.  

The “snapping” action creates a predictably consistent force to power an escapement. This is the key element of the CE – a long and incredibly thin, suspended blade spring, spanning across the escapement. It is only possible to have achieved the required fine tolerances to make the CE work, by fabricating this blade spring out of silicon as a single part.  

The monolithic, single-part silicon blade spring in its unbent state.

The silicon blade spring has a central pivot lever (A), which divides the blade spring in two halves and subtly twists the springs into an “S” shape in either direction when rotated. When twisted, the blade springs store energy in an “quasi-stable” state, whereby a slight push will result in the spring unbuckling in the other direction, releasing a predictable and constant amount of energy.  

The pivot lever (A) acts as one half of the traditional pallet fork of the escapement, and interacts with the roller of the balance wheel. As the balance wheel swings one way, its roller pushes the pivot lever (A), which in turn slightly undoes the twist of the blade spring.  

The most crucial part occurs here – this motion is just enough to cause the blade spring to “unbuckle” and flip into the other “S” direction, forcing the pivot lever (A) in the other direction, and at the same time delivering power to the escape wheel via its roller, like a traditional escapement, but with a consistent impulse of energy.  

With the blade spring unbuckled it is now in a stable, relaxed state and does not store energy – thus needing to be recharged before the next swing of the balance wheel. This is where the remainder of the mechanism comes in: the unlocking of the escape wheels to supply power back to the blade spring. 

The arming rocker mechanism, which recharges the blade spring’s energy between ticks and tocks

In the middle of the left and right blade springs are hollow eyelets, which loosely interacts with an arming rocker (B) via pins within the eyelets. This arming rocker (B) locks and unlocks a pair of escape wheels which are geared together and driven by the going train – the pair of escape wheels makes the CE a double wheel escapement, reminiscent of the natural escapement originally conceived by Abraham-Louis Breguet in 1789. 

During unbuckling, the hollow eyelets along the blade spring pushes the arming rocker (B) via its pins, rotating it slightly out of the way to unlock one escape wheel. The unlocked escape wheel then freely spins as powered by the going train, providing a relatively large force by pushing the arming rocker (B). This toggles the arming rocker (B) towards the other direction until it blocks the other escape wheel. During the toggling action of the arming rocker (B), it transmits force back to the blade spring via the eyelets, re-twisting the blade spring and thus recharging its stored energy, ready for the next cycle.  

To summarise, the CE is a carefully coordinated constant force system using a blade spring – acting as a remontoir as close to the balance wheel as possible – with a recharging system consisting of double escape wheels. One can’t be faulted to assume that such a novel integrated escapement may therefore lack room for future upgrades, due to the seemingly restrictive nature of how the systems have to interact with each other. 

New patents 

Thus, it is fascinating that even a delicately integrated escapement still has room for major mechanical variants and potential improvements in its core design. At this stage, it is a team collaborative effort – new patents were filed by Nicholas after he returned to GP, and also by other GP watchmakers involved with the project.  

While these patents strongly hint at an upcoming updated model of the CE, it is to be made clear that these patents may not necessarily be in a final product. But rather, it showcases the potential improvements that can be made to the existing escapement. 

Three such patents are publicly available, and are presented as follows. It is noted that each patent presents a separate variation to the original design, and thus are mutually exclusive in terms of implementation: 

EP3599514 (2018)

This patent serves to improve the overall efficiency and reliability of the escapement. Two variants are presented: one with the previous double escape wheel setup, and the other intriguingly with a single escape wheel configuration. 

In summary, the overall escape wheel portion of the design has been altered with smaller wheels, and the arming rocker has been tweaked. However, this leads to a crucial addition to the revised design – since both escape wheels rotate in the same direction, it makes operation of the escapement asymmetrical, as the arming rocker engages one escape wheel at different positions.  

Thus, a third blade spring, a compensation spring, can be seen integrated into the upper right of the escapement depicted in the below diagram. This balances the forces of both escape wheels to be symmetrical, allowing the arming rocker to swing symmetrically and thus making the overall escapement more reliable. 

The double wheel escapement with a compensation spring to address the asymmetrical nature of the escape wheels

This patent also presents an alternative design, which has a single escape wheel using a similar modified arming rocker. Again, as the arming rocker engages the escape wheel at different locations between ticks and tocks, the compensation spring is still needed to balance the forces between the left and right swing of the arming rocker.  

The single wheel escapement variant, also with a compensation spring

EP3623875 (2018)

Due to the nature of the CE having an arming rocker that toggles back and forth, there is the possibility of rebound as it collides against the escape wheels during the locking phase.  

Thus, patent EP3623875 proposes the solution in the form of a wedging mechanism. The escape wheels are entirely redesigned in shape – almost like cams – such that it “wedges” against the arming rocker gradually to lock. The gradual wedging prevents any chance of the arming rocker to dislodge or rebound, thus improving overall efficiency of the design. 

It is noted however, that due to the escape wheels having a long sliding surface for the wedging operation, proper lubrication is essential for reliable operation of this design.  

The redesigned escape wheels to cater for a wedging mechanism against the rocker arm

EP3273308 (2016)

This patent is perhaps one of the most intriguing variations to the original CE design. It alters the locking/unlocking mechanism of the double escape wheel with a single escape wheel instead. But most importantly, it redesigns the arming rocker as a cam-controlled system instead. 

More precisely, a Reuleaux triangle cam is installed under the single escape wheel. This serves as a cam, which controls the perturbation motion of the arming rocker via a fork, instead of relying on escape wheels and pallets.  

The arming rocker is now equipped with a fork that’s controlled by a Reuleaux triangle cam

The advantage of using a Reuleaux triangle cam is that it tightly engages with the arming rocker, thus allowing for smooth rocking back and forth without any chance of the arming rocker disengaging or rebounding against the escape wheel. However, being paired with the escape wheel means that the Reuleaux triangle cam rotates relatively quickly, and thus again, adequate lubrication is required to allow smooth engagement with the arming rocker’s fork.

Future plans? 

The three patents above describe significant upgrades to the existing Girard-Perregaux Constant Escapement design. From a solely academic perspective, it is intriguing that even an exotic escapement can still have plenty of room for tweaks and variations.  

And this doesn’t count the fact that more developments are likely under way within the R&D department at Girard-Perregaux, still tightly under wraps. With such developments made over recent years despite the original timepiece debuting as far back as 2013, it is not surprising that hopefully, a revised version of the Constant Escapement may be released in the near future. 

This was brought to you in partnership with Girard-Perregaux.


 

Back to top.

You may also enjoy these.

Louis Erard Introduces the Le Chronographe Monopoussoir Massena LAB

Inspired by the 19th century.

Louis Erard has once again joined forces with Massena LAB for another take on a common complication. Le Chronographe Monopoussoir draws inspiration from 19th century pocket watches and continues with the styling from the first time these two brands collaborated. 

Initial thoughts

Louis Erard’s brand identity is continually shaped and defined by its many partnerships. Its latest collaboration with Massena LAB continues this creative streak with a relatively classical complication in the form of a mono-pusher chronograph. 

Building upon their collaboration from last year, the latest timepiece has kept the distinctive grained dial that is industrially finished but well executed. They have opted for a more restrained design by having just a single register at twelve, deviating from the traditional two- or three-register configuration of most chronographs.

Despite the minimalist aesthetic, the watch is very big at 43 mm wide and 15.7 mm thick. The thickness in particular is a lot and the size may turn some people off. The carries a substantial presence on the wrist, arguably too much for a watch of this style.

One reason for the size is the movement, which is the same Sellita calibre found in all Louis Erard chronographs, including the Alain Silberstein iteration. For that reason, it also remains in the same price range, with a retail of US$4,950, making it fair value as an interesting yet affordable chronograph.

At the same time, this distinguishes itself through the classical aesthetic, especially compared to other more modern Louis Erard collaborations, and will certainly appeal to those who appreciate traditionally styled timepieces. 

Inspired by the 19th century

The design of the Le Chronographe Monopoussoir meant to be reminiscent of 19th century pocket watches and clocks, evoking a sense of nostalgia. The dial is finished with an industrially-applied frosting that is pleasing and adds to the vintage charm. The same finish was first found on the last year’s regulator collaboration between the two brands.

Last year’s collaboration, the Le Régulateur Massena LAB

Continuing with the previous collaboration’s template, this chronograph is available in two configurations: a dial plated in yellow gold and a more understated option in rhodium (officially labelled silver).

The chronograph features a single, silvered minute register positioned at twelve, while the logos of both brands are placed at six.

This is by no means a small watch, housed in a polished steel case measuring 43 mm in diameter and 15.7 mm high. The additional thickness is attributable to the automatic chronograph movement.

The Sellita SW500MPCa inside is derived from the architecture of the workhorse Valjoux 7750, but undergone modifications to transform it into a single-pusher chronograph. As a result, the pusher integrated into the crown serves as the only control for activating and operating the chronograph, giving the case a clean outline.


Key facts and price

Le Chronographe Monopoussoir Louis Erard x Massena Lab
Ref. 74239AA70 (silver)
Ref. 74239AA71 (gold)

Diameter: 43 mm
Height: 15.70 mm
Material: Steel
Crystal: Sapphire
Water resistance: 50 m

Movement: Sellita SW500MPCa
Functions: Hours, minutes and chronograph
Winding: Automatic
Frequency: 28,800 beats per hour (4 Hz)
Power reserve: 48 hours

Strap: Calf leather with pin buckle

Limited edition: 356 pieces – 178 pieces per model
Availability: Direct from Massena LAB, Louis Erard, and their retailers
Price: US$4,950

For more information, visit Louiserard.com.


 

Back to top.

You may also enjoy these.

Andersen Genève Introduces the Jumping Hours Rising Sun Edition

A salmon dial, especially for Japan.

The Jumping Hours Rising Sun Edition adds another shade to the Andersen Genève collection that places dial-work above all else with its expensive, hand-made guilloché dial.

Having initially been released to mark the brand’s 40th anniversary back in 2020 with a blue gold dial, the new jumping hours retains same dial but instead does it in pink gold. It celebrates the independent brand’s long-standing relationship with its Japanese clients, being created to celebrate this deep bond.

Initial thoughts

It is only possible to start and finish discussing this model by talking about the dial. It has more of a dominating presence than you will find on most other watches simply because there is so much dial. Originally done in blue gold, the dial is now in a “salmon” shade might seem a little old hat to many as it has been tagged as a trendy colour for several years now. Though the dial colour feels a little passé since it has been done so often, the dial is still impressively executed in terms of quality.

The link between the dial colour and Japan is less obvious. The company’s chief executive, Pierre-Alexandre Aeschlimann, told us the brand did not consult with anyone in Japan about this design of the jumping hours.

Still, Japanese collectors have long been trendsetters with a love for independent watchmaking, particularly in the 1980s and 1990s, so it comes as no surprise that Andersen Genève continues to see them as a valuable market. During that period, Andersen Genève and its peers like Antoine Preziuso enjoyed much success in Japan, far more so than in other countries.

This watch was launched at the Swiss Ambassador’s residence in Tokyo with only 50 to be made and sold to clients around the world for CHF48,800. The price mirrors last year’s double-signed Asprey World Time, which can be seen as comparable complex in terms of the movement, so this arguably offers equal value for money. An element that weighs in its favour is the amount of time and craftsmanship put into creating the guilloché dial. 

The jump hour disc that sits under the dial at 12 o’clock.

A blank canvas

Though one of the pioneering independent watchmakers, Andersen Genève has since evolved into a brand beyond its founder Svend Andersen. It has more recently built a reputation for focusing on the decorative arts in high horology, with guilloché and enamelling appearing across nearly all of its current collections, including the jumping hours. Those that follow Andersen Genève will be familiar with the model, since it has been in the catalogue for three years

This model has been designed purely around the concept of showcasing the guilloché patterns that its workshops are able to produce. Visually it is similar to the Montre a Tact the brand made 20 years ago that features a digital wandering hours complication on the case band.

The brand describes the pattern on the dial as “magic losange” and it reportedly takes several days to produce just one dial. The proprietary guilloché pattern takes the majority of the space on the dial, while the minute sub-dial is covered in more traditional clous de Paris

The 5N pink gold dial takes on different shades and tones depending on where the light is hitting it and which ridges are being illuminated and which are in shadow. A pleasing effect, and one that is almost heightened by the fact that the dial colour is not achieved through a coating or treatment, but from the metal itself.

 

The platinum case construction is high quality, with soldered lugs and a complimentary mix of brushed and polished surfaces. The case back has a sapphire window that shows the Frédéric Piguet cal. 1150 movement with its rotor and movement ring in a curious mix of pink and blue gold. On top of the base movement is a jumping hour module that was designed in-house.


Key facts and price

Andersen Genève Jumping Hours Rising Sun Edition

Diameter: 38 mm
Height: 19.22 mm
Material: Platinum
Crystal: Sapphire
Water resistance: 30 m

Movement: Frédéric Piguet cal. 1150 with jumping hours module

Functions: Jumping hours and minutes
Winding: Automatic
Frequency: 21,600 beats per hour (3 Hz)
Power reserve: 72 hours

Strap: Alligator with platinum pin buckle

Limited edition: 50 pieces
Availability: Direct from Andersen Genève
Price: CHF48,800 excluding taxes

For more information, visit andersen-geneve.ch.


Back to top.

You may also enjoy these.

Welcome to the new Watches By SJX.

Subscribe to get the latest articles and reviews delivered to your inbox.