Enz 153 SC

Description

There’s not much to find about the Uhrenfabrik Enz in Pforzheim, Germany, with its owner Franz Schnurr, and so, the caliber Enz 153, shown here, is pretty rare, too.

Technically, this movement is a pallet lever movement, but the whole construction is like that of a Roskopf pin lever movement.

The Enz 153 SC is a pillar construction. If you count the number of bearings (all with jewels, except on the mainspring barrel), you recognise, that one bearing is missing, in comparison to a normal lever movement. The cause for that is, that we have a Roskopf construction here, which has got larger wheels and so needs one reduction step less. To achive the number of 17 jewels, the escapement wheel needs to have cap jewels on both sides.

The shock protected anular balance controls a pallet lever movement with an extra large (exceeding the center of the movement) mainspring barrel, second wheel, third wheel (which engages with its outer teeth into the outer teeth of the center second wheel) and escapement wheel. The odditiy of the escapement wheel is, that it’s construction is mirrored to a standard escapement wheel: The teeth go to the right, on normal escapement wheel, they go to the left. The reason is, that because of the missing transmission step, the escapement wheel turns counterclockwise.

The mainspring barrel of the Enz 153 SC is not covered on the top. As you can see, it goes over the flat, indirectly driven center second wheel, which is only single-side beared.

The ratchet is on top of the mainspring barrel bridge, which also carries the top bearing of the second wheel. It is a very simple construction, consisting of only one spring, which blocks the crown wheel.

The balance is simple and flat with an extra large plateau. Normally, you find this only in simple pin lever movements.

Not less odd is the lateral lever, which has got two jewelled pallets, but you can imagine having it with two pins instead in a pin lever movement.

It is noteable, that the Enz 153 SC has got a yoke winding system, but on the other hand, you find this also in equally simple pin lever movements, like those of Baumgartner.

Since we have a movement with a Roskopf construction, minute and hour wheel are both driven by a slipping clutch on top of the mainspring barrel. Simple but efficient.

Technical data