BritAsianinJap

Thanks for the warm welcome folks. I wish I still had that Timex...

Hi, I've asked a question before working out how to introduce myself. Anyway my interest in joining the forum stems from watching videos on YouTube and in particular the recent discovery of Marks Watch Repairs channel. They are phenomenal. My name is Anil and I'm a Civil Engineer by profession. I got back into wearing mechanical watches a couple of years ago - I went straight in at the deep end and bought myself a Rolex Daytona and admittedly knew very little about Rolexes let alone a Daytona. Its still by far the best Chronograph and the most comfortable watch bracelet I have in my collection. Of course my first schoolboy watch was a rather nice Timex with a dark dial and 'Made in Scotland'. It was a tough little beauty and got me through all the rough and tumble of my schooldays and well into higher education before parting with it, I really cannot recall what and where it disappeared. I do however recall wearing it with a real Zebra skin strap which I thought was the coolest straps ever. Anyway introductions over, I'm here at this forum to learn something new (hopefully everyday) about anything to do with watches. Perhaps also to contribute too. Thanks

Thank you for the replies, yes I fully understand that it may be possible to make some minor refinements (especially on hand wound watches) however one probably cannot get away with making drastic changes to for example doubling power reserve from 40hrs to 90hrs simply by retro-fitting a mainspring and a new barrel even if it was possible to obtain one with equivalent dimensions. I was intrigued by the recent purchase of a system 51 Swatch automatic with a power reserve of 90 hrs compared to one of my Omegas. The Swatch barrel does however look somewhat larger.

I'm really interested in finding out what main characteristics in a mechanical watch decide how much power reserve one can achieve. Can an existing watch be retro-fitted to enhance power reserve and is it recommended? I'm thinking does it impact on the other components in a watch?