Duke 402 SCI

Description

A really unknown manufacturer is “Duke”, which must have been a swiss-french manufactury, who produced a small lineup of movements around 1960.

Among these movements was the Duke 402 SCI, a 10 1/2 ligne pin lever movement shown here.

The strikung “jewelled” advertisment on the gear train bridge is a sure indication for a low-quality movement, and indeed, the only “Jewel” of this movement is the jewel of the balance ellipse.

Easy to see: All bearings of this pin lever movement are made of brass and don’t contain bearing jewels.

At 7 o’clock you can see the spring for the rocking bar winding mechanism, and at 1 o’clock, there’s the ratchet click.

We have the typical gear train for a pin lever movement: The mainspring barrel drives the center minute wheel, followed by third wheel, seconds wheel and escape wheel. On the top of the gear train bridge, there’s a gear sitting on the prolonged axle of the third wheel and drives the center second axle, which is spring-beared.

The escapement is a conventional pin lever escapement, and the balance is a pivot-beared, non shock-protected anular balance, which beats with 18000 A/h.

The dial side reminds a lot to those of Eppler movements. At 11 o’clock you see a well made click mechanism and at 3 o’clock the rocking bar winding system.

The dial side bearing of the balance wheel has got no cap jewels, but only a metal cap, which is not a very elegant solution, neither technically nor aesthetically.

Technical data

Usage gallery