Eppler 17

Description

One of the most often used wrist watch movements from (Western) Germany might be the Eppler 17, a simple 10 1/2 pin lever movement with optional decentral seconds indication at 6 o’clock.

It differs from the Eppler 16 only by having a pivoted staff of the balance wheel instead of a pointed staff.

During is production time of several decades, it was modified in details. So, for example, there was a rare version available with five jewels and a “true” shock protection.

Later, the hairspring key was simplified and the assumably latest versions even had a simplified hairspring stud, consisting of only a simple brass latch, like on the first picture of this article.

The base plate of this 10 1/2 ligne pillar movement shows, that we have a technically simple, cheap movement, which does not use bearing rubies.

The construction of the Eppler 17 dates back to the 1930s and uses the classical gear train with mainspring barrel, directly driven center minute wheel, third wheel, seconds wheel at 6 o’clock and escape wheel.

As balance, a pivoted, two leg anular wheel is used, which beats with 18000 A/h and regulates a pin lever excapement.

The height play of the balance is adjusted in an odd way by a third screws on the balance wheel cock, which bends it more or less in direction of the base plate.

Most versions of the Eppler 17 use an inhouse shock protection, which consists of a metal bearing, held in position by a three-leg spring.

Also on the dial side, there are many details, which remained the same during the whole production time, like the well made ratchet and the rocking bar winding system.

Later versions used a plastic cannon pinion and a plastic changer wheel.

Eppler managed to get the permission for using a wide range of popular cartoon and film characters to print on the dial. No matter whether it’s Pinocchio, Pumuckl, The Smurfs or others, in watches with these dials, there was always an Eppler movement used, sometimes the Eppler 16 and sometimes the Eppler 17.

Because of this, even in the 1980s, Eppler managed to sell big quantities of simple windup movements and delay the unavoidable bankruptcy until the late 1990s.

Technical data

Usage gallery