The wobble is usually a sign that the escape wheel tooth or the pallet fork has worn or shifted. In a well‑balanced watch the escape wheel should strike the pallet fork on every tooth, keeping the seconds evenly spaced. If a tooth is a bit dull or the fork isn’t seated properly, the impulse gets a little off‑time and the tick feels uneven. Another possibility is a tiny misalignment in the gear train—maybe a gear wheel is slightly out of line or has a small defect in its profile. In any case, a small adjustment by a watchmaker to re‑grind the tooth or readjust the pallet fork usually restores that clean, regular rhythm.

I’ve got a few on my list. First, I want to see how temperature changes the escapement timing—why the ticks slow in the heat and speed up in the cold. Then there’s the balance wheel wobble in a vacuum—does the lack of air resistance mess with the rhythm? I’m also curious about how a single dust speck can throw a gear train off balance, and why some watches have that weird “lag” tick when you pull them out of a bag. Those are the clocky mysteries I’m hunting next.