Vanessa's Parts Insp. #4...Ca. 3135 Escape Wheel

[Tools]

The Escape Wheel, along with the pallet, are the primary parts that make up the watches "escapement" and together deliver the proper cadence or timing for the mainspring to unwind at a known rate, and the hands to display this unwinding rate as "time" on your dial.

Escape Wheel and Pallet:


How they fit together:


The Escape Wheel is driven by the watch geartrain, usually the 4th wheel, and provides a push against the pallet jewel, which in turn, imparts energy to the hairspring impulse jewel thus driving the hairspring.

Here is how it fits with the hairspring and pallet:


And how it looks inside a watch:


Now, let's see if you can find it here in our Cal. 3135 Rolex Movement:


Inspecting the Escape Wheel, you need to examine it's main drive gear clearly seen here extending from the center of the wheel:


Another critical area is the pivot on either end of the wheel staff (axle):

Here we can see that this Escape Wheel has considerable wear in the small end pivot, and therefore, needs replacing: