New to watch repair ** Safe Zone For Learner Watch Repairers **
Discussing subjects relating to learner watch repairers.
More experienced repairers - please guide learners with patience and respect 
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welcome to the forum, @akira7799 you could also go for this spring, available at Cousins: I sometimes find that it's good to go down in strength (height or thickness) ever so slightly, when going from an old spring to a new S-shaped one + upgrading to new synthetic lubricants. You may otherwise risk re-banking (if everything else in the movement is doing well). -
If possible, could you tell me the spring size of this? I have a clock of this type. -
It all depends how much you're willing to spend and if you're happy to try the old mainspring and see what results you get with the possibility of having to swap it at a later stage. The key sizes are the height and thickness with some flexibility on the length depending on the barrel size. If you look at the likes of Cousins for springs around the GR4486 Edit There are still some GR4486 out their. https://www.ebay.com/itm/126715574424?ff3=2&toolid=10044&customid=&lgeo=1&vectorid=229508&item=126715574424&ufes_redirect=true -
Older mainsprings look like that. The S shaped mainspring is a modern invention that is, as far as I know, better at providing the same torque across all states of wind. By modern I mean 1950-ish (someone will correct me on that I'm sure). Your old spring looks ok to my eyes: no kinks, healthy space between the coils. I'd just put it back, though others might replace it. -
Hi All! I have an ST1686 that I am tearing down and rebuilding for my first service. I got down to the mainspring barrel and opened it. It was pretty dirty, so I unwound it to clean. But it didn't look like a mainspring typically would like this stock mainspring photo from Wikipedia. It was only spiral coiled and didn't flatten out. I've attached a photo to accompany my poor rookie explanation. If this is abnormal, I'll need to source a replacement. I see that the ST1686 takes a GR4486, but the GR4486 is discontinued. I'm able to source a new old stock (NOS) spring on eBay, but what would be a good modern alternative to the GR4486 1.60mm high x .10mm thick x 300mm long x 9mm barrel diameter? Do I look for slightly longer spring? Thinner spring? Thicker spring? I know the height and barrel diameter should probably need to stay the same, right? As far as the barrel goes, how do you tell the difference between the machined ridge to hold the end of the mainspring and a broken piece of mainspring that's stuck inside of the barrel? I've attached photos of the end of the mainspring and the inside of the barrel. I appreciate the help since I have no bearing for what "normal" looks like. Thanks for the help in advance! Dave
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