Long read: Omega De Ville Co-Axial Escapement Limited Edition, a piece of watchmaking history

George Daniels is almost universally recognised as the greatest watchmaker of his lifetime, and even if you haven't heard of him, you might have seen evidence of his work on the dial of millions of Omega watches around the world — the words CO-AXIAL. His most significant contribution to watchmaking was the development of his co-axial escapement, the first serious step forward in watchmaking in more than 200 years, and was first put to work in the Omega De Ville Co-Axial Escapement Limited Edition. That's right, not much had changed in two centuries before Daniels began his work. His co-axial escapement was important because not only did it improve the accuracy of a typical mechanical watch, but it also vastly improved the mechanical efficiency of the movement so that it would need less regular servicing. Legend has it that Daniels woke in the middle of the night with a complete picture of what the escapement would look like, but really it was the cumulative efforts of 20 years of work that led him to develop his invention. In essence, the co-axial escapement was successfully able to eliminate almost all friction between the pallet fork and the escape wheel, an improvement on… Read More