Nice 177H, but damn does it run fast..

[P4GTR]

I'm gaining I would say, at least 3 minutes an hour. Thats quite excessive, more then I would attribute to a break-in period. Somethings gotta be wrong. Looks like the hair spring is uneven, and possibly bent. The wind should be even and circular. It is uneven and looks like the beat of the hair spring is uneven, moving a little on one side and a lot on the other.

green highlights are trying to demonstrate how the winding is not evenly spaced. Also look how the hair spring isn't exactly circular.

red highlight demonstrates where there appears to be excess hair spring, that is bent in after being secured to the (balance [censored]?).

-Can a watch smith source a new spring, and how much am I likely to spend for the repair?

[P4GTR]

can that swan neck be adjusted?

[freddy333]

Difficult to tell from your photos, but if you were 'dabbling' with or near the balance, then you probably damaged it. The spring is not terribly expensive, but you are probably looking at 1-2 hours of labor to install a new one. Labor rates vary, so you will need to check with a local watchmaker for pricing.

If you have not been 'dabbling', then the spring is probably just magnetized. Magnetized coils will stick together, which shortens the effective length of the spring causing the balance to cycle faster than normal. This is a common problem that usually manifests itself in the watch suddenly speeding up more than a few seconds/hour.

If you have a tape head demagnetizer, you may be able to demagnetize the spring by demagnetizing the watchcase the same way you demagnetize a tape head. With the demagnetizer within 1/2" of the watch, switch the power on and make a few circular movements around the face of the watch and then slowly extend your arm (with the demagnetizer still on) until the demagnetizer is an arm's length away and power it off. Repeat on the other side of the watch. If your demagnetizer has sufficient degaussing strength, it should be able to remove the magnetic flux on the spring allowing its coils to separate and return to their normal positions(and the watch's beat to return to normal).

If that does not work, I would take the watch to a watchmaker and expect to pay for at least 1-2 hours of labor (some watchmakers will refuse to dismantle anything unless you allow them to overhaul the movement).

[P4GTR]

I have not touched the hair spring. I'm going to take it to a watchsmith on monday as apposed to sending this on another world tour and risking getting the same thing or worse back after a month's wait.

[P4GTR]

I fixed it myself. the hairspring was caught on itself. Its been running COSC for 48hrs since.

[geo1nah2a]

This happens sometime due to a fall or a bump. Good job on your part. No need to go to a watchsmith for such a minor problem. Sometimes you can snap it back with a smack, but it can do damage as well as good. Next solution (what you apparently did) open the back, and untangle it.

Since you seem inclined to DIY () i am reposting the ETA link with the part numbers in your caliber. Even if the hairspring was damaged, you can source a #721 from various suppliers and do the replacement yourself.

[BigSlickAK]

Question on Unitas regulating. Is there a link to where one could DIY? I'm losing about 1 minute a day.

[chuck]

Sorry for bring up an old thread, but I just wanted to thank P4 cause this is exactly what happened to my 177H It was running about +5min an hour.

In the picture you can see how the beginning of the hairspring is overlapping the bottom one, its because it was caught on the gold "holder" which has a notch on the bottom to guide the spring ( I don't know the proper name for that is.) So I took the case back off and used a needle to push down the part of the spring that was caught. Ta Da! It worked. Been running perfect since.

[P4GTR]

Glad it worked for you, Chuck.

After this initial problem, the watch has run flawlessly ever since. and the quality never fails to impress me everytime I wear it.