Early Mechanical Clock Escapement

Timeline

1. 1360Western European town clock towers · Western EuropeIn the 1360s European towns commonly used gravity-driven mechanical clocks to strike the hours; the verge and foliot was the dominant scheme, its escape wheel teeth alternately locking and releasing the gear train, with accuracy of several to over a dozen minutes per day—sufficient for public timekeeping.
2. 1364Padua · PaduaIn 1364 the Paduan physician Giovanni Dondi completed his complex astronomical clock (Astrarium), driving displays of the sun, moon, and planets with multiple escapements and gear trains, representing the highest 14th-century achievement in applying escapement technology to precision astronomical machinery; his Tractatus astrarii details the escapement and drive design.
3. 1360–1370Clockmaking centers of Germany and France · Western EuropeIn the 1360s escapement-making skills were transmitted orally and by practice within church clockmakers' guilds, with blacksmiths and coppersmiths casting escape wheels, pivots, and frames; clock tower construction across regions promoted standardization, laying the mechanical groundwork for 15th-century weight-driven pendulum and spring clocks.