balance wheel
1 : a wheel that regulates or stabilizes the motion of a mechanism
2 : a balancing or stabilizing force
Recent Examples on the Web
//On a watch, the traditional oscillator has over 30 parts including a balance wheel and a balance spring, which contribute to a watch’s accuracy through a back-and-forth rotation.
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Michael Clerizo, WSJ, "The Future of Watches: 3-D Printed Cases and Robot Horologists," 31 July 2018
//In watchmaking terms an escapement transfers energy to watch's timekeeping element, like a pendulum or balance wheel, and keeps track of the repetitive oscillations inside the watch.
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David Grossman, Popular Mechanics, "This Complex 3D Printed Watch Has 70 Moving Parts," 11 May 2018
//On a watch, the traditional oscillator has over 30 parts including a balance wheel and a balance spring, which contribute to a watch’s accuracy through a back-and-forth rotation.
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Michael Clerizo, WSJ, "The Future of Watches: 3-D Printed Cases and Robot Horologists," 31 July 2018
//The classic mechanical movement relies on the release of energy from a wound-up spring to swing a balance wheel in order to keep time, and there are a million little things that can undermine the precision of this process.
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Vlad Savov, The Verge, "Wired headphones are becoming the mechanical watches of personal audio," 7 July 2018
//In watchmaking terms an escapement transfers energy to watch's timekeeping element, like a pendulum or balance wheel, and keeps track of the repetitive oscillations inside the watch.
—
David Grossman, Popular Mechanics, "This Complex 3D Printed Watch Has 70 Moving Parts," 11 May 2018
//These tiny arms and balance wheels are all manually assembled by workers, using microscopic lenses in ultra-sterile workspaces.
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Chris Rovzar, Bloomberg.com, "See the 150-Year-Old Secrets of Swiss Watchmaking at the Zenith Factory," 18 Sep. 2017
First Known Use of balance wheel
1669, in the meaning defined at sense 1
Dictionary Entries near balance wheel