Smiths RY Empire

Description

The Anglo-Celtic watch company with their “Smiths” labelled movements from Ystradgynlais in Wales belongs for sure into the list of rare to find manufacturers.

One of their at least visually very pleasant movements is the 13 ligne caliber Smiths RY Empire, a pin lever movement in a Roskopf construction.

As on many pin lever movement in Roskopf construction, the hand setting wheel is locate on the base plate and not on the dial side. It is driven by the yoke wheel, which means, that this movement uses a yoke winding system.

There are hardly any bearing jewels, all jewels of this movement are obstructed in the balance section: 2 bearing jewels, two cap jewels and the ellipse jewel.

The already mentioned Roskopf construction can be seen on the extra large mainspring barrel, which surpasses the center and the following only three gears, second wheel, third wheel and finally the escapement wheel. The former two are also very large.

The enormous gear ratios come out even better in the side view.

While true Roskopf movements beat with 17280 A/h, the Smiths RY Emire uses the standard beating frequency of 18000 A/h. Its screw-less anular balance is not shock protected and also lacks an adjustment arm.

Zifferblattseitig erkennt man den recht gut ausgearbeiteten Kupplungsaufzug.

The typical Roskopf feature, namely that hours and minutes wheel are driven directly from the mainspring barrel, or by a slip clutch mounted thereon double wheel, you can only guess in this view, unfortunately - but it is indeed so!

In the lab

Timegrapher result

On the timegrapher, the Smiths RY Empire performed as expected:
The position rates differ pretty much, but on being worn, they would more or less egalize each other. With a higher amplitude (could be achieved by a service and/or exchange of the mainspring) and a lower beat error, the rates could be be better. Nevertheless, for a pin lever movement of that age, they are yet acceptable.

Technical data

Usage gallery