COUNTERSHAFTS

Countershafts are usually a series of hardened steel wheels where there is always one gear per axis.

Thus they transmit a rotation further, also sometimes dividing or multiplying the rotation but with an effect inferior to that which could be created by a gear train.

In high quality watches these countershafts can also be polished to a high level. However, the effect on the movement will be non-existent because in a watch the references are only activated during secondary functions such as setting the time, which is activated by the force of the user’s fingers and not by the force of the barrel spring.

It should be kept in mind that, as with a gear train in a gear train, the direction of rotation is reversed at each axis, unlike pulleys operating with belts.