a strasser & rohde 'pendulum free' reproduction. this one is a reproduction of S&Rs top-of-the-line movement, referred to as 'pendulum free' because there is no crutch, per se.... the verge has a top-mounted assembly that comes up and back to connect via a small metal post into a jewel on an auxiliary assembly over the suspension spring.

another cool feature is the verge, with two jewel pallets on each side.... as opposed to your regular deadbeat verge, the left-most jewels are for impulse... the escape wheel teeth slide a bit on those impulse faces into the locking jewels on the right. this means that impulse happens when the pendulum is already in motion, with the impulse happening as the pendulum is swinging past center left or right.... gravity assisted!

the increase in accuracy provided by these allowed strasser and rohde to guarantee accuracy (early 1900s, mind you) at +-.01 seconds per day.

i don''t expect anywhere near that with a repro, but on the other hand, chet hicks has one and told me his is phenomenally accurate and that i would love the build quality... and i do... it's really exceptional. apparently there was this german guy who contracted with a friend in shanghai to make 20 of these repros, and he had a team of talented craftsmen working for him.

note the photo that shows the rectangular heavy black block that gets bolted to the wall. the case then slips right onto the block and is held in place with four knurled brass knobs in the four corners. note the tunable dial height posts.