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Mainsprings...


ceejay

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Just wandering what you guys do when replacing a mainspring, of a known calibre. Do you measure it and buy one per the measurements or do you buy one per the calibre reference?

 

Ive got to do a ETA 2824-2 mainspring and I have the choice of buying the whole barrel complete with arbour and mainspring, measuring it and buying by the measurements reference or buying it by the calibre reference.

 

I will probably do the measure and buy from that. I am proficient using the mainspring winder ;)

 

Or I may just make a new hooking (arbour) end snapped :)

 

 

What do you guys do?

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Taking the opportunity to ask if there is a safe way to wind an automatic watch spring not having a scary expensive estrapade.

I tried once with a spare 2836 barrel and after1h I gave up (and also broke the spring...)

 

Invest in a mainspring winder if you are going to be servicing mainsprings. I imagine most commercial watch smiths don't bother with servicing as you can get 'most' mainsprings off the shelf from places like Cousins UK etc. It saves a lot of trouble and time if you just replace the mainspring rather than service it.

 

I do it for practice for when the time comes (maybe) that I have to do it.

 

I have just ordered a 2824-2 spring from Cousins.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well the mainspring from Cousins arrived and it had the same problem as the one that I snapped. The centre arbor coil was too big, on the original mainspring this was due to the mainspring winder enlarging the coil when inserted onto the winder. But I was surprised that the mainspring from Cousins that was 'supposed' to be for the 2824 had a enlarged centre arbor hole.

 

Out with the strong tweezers and gradually closed up the last coil until it gripped the hooking.

 

Is this the norm with new hairsprings?

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