In the almost five decades that Bernhard Lederer has been working with timepieces — making and maintaining clocks and watches with complications such as chronographs and tourbillons — one component has been his obsession: the escapement.
It is the part of a mechanical timepiece that regulates the gears so the watch runs and keeps time accurately. It essentially sets the pace of the entire mechanism.
“I don’t see myself as a complication watchmaker,” Mr. Lederer said in a phone interview from his office in St.-Blaise, Switzerland, a small town on Lake Neuchâtel. “The words complicate and complication are so close. I love watches that are not complicated, that are easy to use, easy to read. But yes, I’m a guy who is deep into the escapement.”
The timepiece introduced in 2021 by his Lederer brand — the Central Impulse Chronometer, or C.I.C., as it is often called — demonstrates that focus. While a typical mechanical watch has a one-wheel escapement, the 44-millimeter C.I.C. was powered by two wheels; its gear trains — which align the escapement’s gears — are also separate.
Mr. Lederer’s escapement was inspired by a similar one created for pocket watches by the celebrated British watchmaker George Daniels. And while some other brands offer wristwatches with double escapements, he said that his patented creation was especially sturdy, reliable and resilient.
