What is Shock Protection?
Watchmakers include “shock-protection” in their watches in the form of a tiny spring that holds the balance staff jewels in place, instead of being rigidly held. This gives a slight amount of give – not enough to disrupt the operation of the watch for more than a moment, but enough to prevent the balance pivots or cap jewels from damage.
As is fairly obvious, a mechanical watch is made up of numerous tiny parts, many of which are in constant motion. It would not do for an accidental bump to interfere with the watch’s ability to keep time due to damaging of the balance pivots. So, watchmakers include “shock-protection” in their watches in the form of a tiny spring that holds the balance staff jewels in place, instead of being rigidly held. This gives a slight amount of give – not enough to disrupt the operation of the watch for more than a moment, but enough to prevent the balance pivots or cap jewels from damage. Shock protection is usually only applied to the balance because the high speeds and regular motion they are designed for – this kind of design goal leads one to small, extremely hard pivots, with most of the weight concentrated at the rim of the balance. These factors combine to make for a lot of broken pivots. Richard Paige has a short article on the details of how a shock proof system works.
As is fairly obvious, a mechanical watch is made up of numerous tiny parts, many of which are in constant motion. It would not do for an accidental bump to interfere with the watch’s ability to keep time due to damaging of the balance pivots. So, watchmakers include “shock-protection” in their watches in the form of a tiny spring that holds the balance staff jewels in place, instead of being rigidly held. This gives a slight amount of give – not enough to disrupt the operation of the watch for more than a moment, but enough to prevent the balance pivots or cap jewels from damage. Shock protection is usually only applied to the balance because the high speeds and regular motion they are designed for – this kind of design goal leads one to small, extremely hard pivots, with most of the weight concentrated at the rim of the balance. These factors combine to make for a lot of broken pivots.
As is fairly obvious, a mechanical watch is made up of numerous tiny parts, many of which are in constant motion. It would not do for an accidental bump to interfere with the watch’s ability to keep time due to damaging of the balance pivots. So, watchmakers include “shock-protection” in their watches in the form of a tiny spring that holds the balance staff jewels in place, instead of being rigidly held. This gives a slight amount of give – not enough to disrupt the operation of the watch for more than a moment, but enough to prevent the balance pivots or cap jewels from damage. Shock protection is usually only applied to the balance because the high speeds and regular motion they are designed for – this kind of design goal leads one to small, extremely hard pivots, with most of the weight concentrated at the rim of the balance. These factors combine to make for a lot of broken pivots. Richard Paige has a short article on the details of how a shock proof system works. 1.1.7 What do th
