{"id":529,"date":"2014-01-10T11:36:50","date_gmt":"2014-01-10T17:36:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bernardwatch.com\/blog\/?p=529"},"modified":"2018-07-10T10:56:44","modified_gmt":"2018-07-10T15:56:44","slug":"what-is-the-balance-wheel-of-a-watch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bernardwatch.com\/blog\/what-is-the-balance-wheel-of-a-watch\/","title":{"rendered":"What is the Balance Wheel of a Watch?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The balance wheel is to a fine, mechanical watch what a pendulum is to a grandfather’s clock or a mantle clock. Just like a pendulum, the balance wheel is a weighted device that swings back and forth, inside of the watch mechanism. Each swing of the balance wheel creates a tick or a beat and advances the gears that drive the face of the watch, making the hands move one position.<\/p>\n

The balance wheel is part of the harmonic (or rotary) oscillating mechanism of a watch, a grouping that also includes the balance spring. The balance spring (also called the hairspring) is responsible for returning the balance wheel to the center of the watch after each tick.<\/p>\n

\"Zenith<\/a>
The balance assembly on this Zenith is tucked deeper in the movement than most. It’s in the bottom right of this picture.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

The balance wheel also comes into play when measuring the accuracy of a mechanical watch. The beats per hour (BPH), a universal measurement for time pieces, refers to the half-swings the balance wheel makes per hour. Watches made prior to the 1970s have a BPH of 18,000. Today’s watches beat more quickly. You’ll find 21,600 BPH watches, 28,800 BPH watches and even a few 36,000 BPH watches. The best balance wheel watches vary only a few seconds in a day.<\/p>\n

\"Roger<\/a>
This high-end Roger Dubuis has screws on the balance wheel which use to be typical, but are now rare due to modern alloys allowing temperature correction.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Virtually every clock or watch made since the 14th century (when mechanical clocks were invented) has contained a balance wheel.<\/p>\n

\"ETA<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The balance wheel is to a fine, mechanical watch what a pendulum is to a grandfather’s clock or a mantle clock.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":556,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[39,29],"class_list":["post-529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-watch-knowledge","tag-glossary","tag-watchmaking","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.bernardwatch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/a-lange-movement-L041.2-close-up.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":443,"url":"https:\/\/www.bernardwatch.com\/blog\/omega-2500-8500-movements\/","url_meta":{"origin":529,"position":0},"title":"A Progression of Movements: Omega 2500 & 8500 Calibers","date":"January 7, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The Omega Caliber 2500 was developed by Omega in the 1990s. In 1993, Omega purchased the patent for the Co-Axial escapement from English master watchmaker and inventor George Daniels. The Co-Axial Escapement was the first practical new mechanical watch escapement invented for mass market in 250 years. Omega began work\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Watch Knowledge"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bernardwatch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/OMG2178MVMT1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":28,"url":"https:\/\/www.bernardwatch.com\/blog\/servicing-mechanical-watches\/","url_meta":{"origin":529,"position":1},"title":"How often should a mechanical watch be serviced? Why does a watch need a service? What is a service?","date":"August 29, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"A common question for a watch dealer or watchmaker is, \"How often should a mechanical watch be serviced?\" I asked multiple watchmakers and they generally went along with the watch industry recommendations. Most manufacturers recommend having a watch serviced every five years. Bernard Watch times every pre-owned watch that is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Watch Tips"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":294,"url":"https:\/\/www.bernardwatch.com\/blog\/why-is-it-important-to-wind-my-automatic-with-the-crown\/","url_meta":{"origin":529,"position":2},"title":"Why Is It Important To Wind My Automatic Watch With The Crown?","date":"September 27, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"We had a gentleman come into the office today with a nice Breitling Navitimer for sale. Typically when people have a watch for sale, they are not wearing it so the first thing we do is wind the watch up fully via the crown to power it. After that, we\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Watch Knowledge"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bernardwatch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/TIMER1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":133,"url":"https:\/\/www.bernardwatch.com\/blog\/musings-on-the-omega-8500-caliber\/","url_meta":{"origin":529,"position":3},"title":"Musings on the Omega 8500 Caliber","date":"August 16, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Omega introduced the In-House 8500 caliber in the DeVille Hour Vision in 2007. \u00a0Omega now had \"Manufacture\" watches. \u00a0A manufacture watch is one where all or almost all the parts are made in-house. I remember being moved by how beautifully executed the movement is. \u00a0I liked that it was larger\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Watch Knowledge"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bernardwatch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/OMG2182MVMT-2.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1073,"url":"https:\/\/www.bernardwatch.com\/blog\/watch-notes-chronographs-nov-2016\/","url_meta":{"origin":529,"position":4},"title":"Watch Notes of the Week – Chronographs!","date":"November 16, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"You probably already know a chronograph is essentially a watch with a stopwatch built in. In most cases, the chrono-seconds are mounted in the center, and the watch will have additional subdials for the minutes and hours. Below is a selection of Chronographs with some special notes on each!","rel":"","context":"In "Watch Notes & Comments"","img":{"alt_text":"Chronograph Watch Notes","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bernardwatch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/chronograph-watches.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":366,"url":"https:\/\/www.bernardwatch.com\/blog\/watch-rotor\/","url_meta":{"origin":529,"position":5},"title":"The Watch Rotor : Watch Terms","date":"October 21, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"With the recent comeback of the mechanical watch and its rotor, the longevity of such watches is remarkable, and a true testament to the artistry of mechanical watches. .","rel":"","context":"In "Watch Knowledge"","img":{"alt_text":"rotor","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bernardwatch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/rotor.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bernardwatch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bernardwatch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bernardwatch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bernardwatch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bernardwatch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=529"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.bernardwatch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1130,"href":"https:\/\/www.bernardwatch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529\/revisions\/1130"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bernardwatch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bernardwatch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bernardwatch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bernardwatch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}