What does "retrogate" mean?

the word is retrograde if you are referring to watch mechanisms

Retrograde hours and other retrograde indications

“Retrograde” hands sweep a segment of a circle before springing back to their initial position to begin their movement again. Their endless choreography is an inspiration for innovative and highly spectacular dials.

While most watches display time by means of hands rotating on an axis, some watchmakers have given free rein to their creativity by developing alternative displays. In the late seventeenth century, some pocket watches’ hour hand would sweep a segment of a circle for half the day then return to its starting point to begin all over again. Abraham-Louis Breguet used this type of "retrograde" mechanism in the late eighteenth century for functions such as the date or the equation of time. After falling somewhat out of favour, retrograde displays returned to the spotlight on late twentieth-century wristwatches. Today they are very much in vogue and take all manner of forms. Technically speaking, there is nothing revolutionary about this system as the movement’s overall construction remains the same. The difference comes at the very end with the complex mechanism of rack, pawls and springs, conceived and made with the utmost precision, that drives the hands. Retrograde hands lend themselves to all types of indication, for example the hour, minute and date, and this versatility has inspired a wave of "bi-retrograde" and "tri-retrograde" watches. The retrograde system is especially impressive with fast-moving indications such as the seconds. Very often, retrograde hands are combined with jumping indications.

"Retrogate" must be a typo of retrograde. Every source I can find that is attempting to define the word "retrogate" says something along the lines of "do you mean retrograde?"

It shoul dbe "retrogade".

Retrogade means..

–adjective 1. moving backward; having a backward motion or direction; retiring or retreating.

2. inverse or reversed, as order.

3. Chiefly Biology. exhibiting degeneration or deterioration.

4. Astronomy. a. moving in an orbit in the direction opposite to that of the earth in its revolution around the sun.

b. appearing to move on the celestial sphere in the direction opposite to the natural order of the signs of the zodiac, or from east to west. Compare direct (def. 25).

5. Music. proceeding from the last note to the first: a melody in retrograde motion.

6. Archaic. contrary; opposed.

–verb (used without object) 7. to move or go backward; retire or retreat.

8. Chiefly Biology. to decline to a worse condition; degenerate.

9. Astronomy. to have a retrograde motion.

–verb (used with object) 10. Archaic. to turn back.

retrograde

1.Move backward in an orbit, of celestial bodies

2.Move in a direction contrary to the usual one

ex:"retrograding planets"