A balance-type gravity metre that is heavily damped in order to attenuate shipboard vertical accelerations. It consists of a mass at the end of a horizontal arm, supported by a torsion-spring rotational axis. The mass rises and falls with gravity variation, but is restored to near its null position by a horizontal reading spring, tensioned with a micrometre screw. The difference between actual beam position and null position gives indication of gravity value after the micrometre screw position has been taken into account.