The Escapement Is the Whole TrickA fully wound mainspring is a small coiled catastrophe. It wants to unwind all at once, immediately, in a single violent shrug that would spin the gear train into a blur and destroy the very thing it powers. Left alone, stored energy has no interest in being useful. It has one interest, which is to stop being stored. Everything we admire about a mechanical watch is the machinery that stands between that ambition and its consequences. The escapement - a lever, a wheel with slanted teeth, an oscillating balance - takes a wild uneven shove...