THE SEAHOLM® LIBRARY
These days, we tend to take shock protection in our watches for granted, being something we rarely think about. Shocks, however, have long been the enemy of the mechanical timekeeper, as even a simple blow to a timepiece from smacking one’s arm against a table can be enough to cause damage to the movement.
Watchmakers have been battling the problem for centuries, with solutions dating as far back as the 1700s when Louis Abraham Breguet invented the ‘Para-chute’ shock protection system and installed it in some of his more exclusive models. By and large, watch manufacturers would continue the search for an ideal shock protection system until the year 1932, which saw the introduction of the Incabloc system that could be adapted to fit in any watch. After the introduction of Incabloc, however, it took some time for manufacturers to equip their watches with the technology, which is why we see watches made as late as the 1950s that didn’t utilize any form of shock protection.
Why Shock Protection Is Essential
In a mechanical watch movement, every gear has an axle, or arbor, running through the middle of it and a pivot on the end of that axle. These pivots get progressively smaller from the mainspring barrel — the source of energy — down to the balance, which is responsible for timekeeping regulation. The balance has particularly fine pivots that are extremely breakable, and watches that lack shock protection would only need a small blow to shear them off.
These days, we tend to take shock protection in our watches for granted, being something we rarely think about. Shocks, however, have long been the enemy of the mechanical timekeeper, as even a simple blow to a timepiece from smacking one’s arm against a table can be enough to cause damage to the movement.
Watchmakers have been battling the problem for centuries, with solutions dating as far back as the 1700s when Louis Abraham Breguet invented the ‘Para-chute’ shock protection system and installed it in some of his more exclusive models. By and large, watch manufacturers would continue the search for an ideal shock protection system until the year 1932, which saw the introduction of the Incabloc system that could be adapted to fit in any watch. After the introduction of Incabloc, however, it took some time for manufacturers to equip their watches with the technology, which is why we see watches made as late as the 1950s that didn’t utilize any form of shock protection.
Why Shock Protection Is Essential
In a mechanical watch movement, every gear has an axle, or arbor, running through the middle of it and a pivot on the end of that axle. These pivots get progressively smaller from the mainspring barrel — the source of energy — down to the balance, which is responsible for timekeeping regulation. The balance has particularly fine pivots that are extremely breakable, and watches that lack shock protection would only need a small blow to shear them off.