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Hi All, I'm relatively new to watchmaking. Having serviced a few watches already, but I so far dodged more involved repairs. I was working on a nice Vostok watch. I have disassembled, cleaned, reassembled and lubricated the movement. One of the last steps were to reseat the balance complete. The balance didn't want to move freely so I had to take out and put it back a few times. I could have been too hard with the part or maybe the hairspring wasn't connected well enough. All in all, the hairspring got disconnected from the balance cock. My main problem now is that I don't recognize the substance/adhesive that the hairspring was connected with originally. It's a relatively tidy job so I think it was done in the factory but it's not shellac. I don't know if this can be warmed up so I can offer back the hairspring or should it be removed and replaced with an equivalent adhesive substance. The hairspring is OK as far as I can tell. Please kindly help me formulate a repair plan for this part. I would like to repair this part myself. I can easily source a replacement balance complete but I would like to learn how to deal with this. And now the pictures.

Hello Happy Clock and Watchmakers, This is probably my fourth question about the AS 175. I have a wrist watch belonging to my wife where I promised her to fix her watch. Now the balance has a broken rub in jewel I failed to replace so far. I thought I would replace the whole cock with the jewel but to my surprise the balance cocks were not identical even though I got 3 of them. I noticed that there is a number stamped into the main plate next to the balance cock, would it refer to the different type of cocks?? This is number 3: This is number 2 (wife watch): This is number 0 ( i got two zeros, but I have not compared them together yet, that is going to be interesting to see though) Question: Would I need to get a balance cock from a donor movement which is marked with 2? Thank you, lui

I work a lot on small caliber (ladies watch size) movements but still have mishaps with the balance hairspring. These hairsprings are very fragile and easily bent and removing/replacing the balance assembly seems to be my problem. I would like any comments on the risks of deforming the hairspring by allowing the wheel to dangle during handling. I would also like to know if the position of the regulator arm/pins has any effect re risk of deforming the spring, should it be close to the stud or as far a possible from the stud, I normally leave it where I find it so the timing is close to what it was before dis-assembly. Any advice on techniques etc will be much appreciated.

I am not a watchmaker but just an amateurs. Servicing a vintage rotary which was beating erratically i noticed that the spring that hold the jewel on the cock is broken. It seems that I have to dismantle the part of the cock that hold the shock assorbent mechanism. How to do that? Help please Elio

I recently encountered a balance assembly in which the hairspring appears to be cemented into a grove in the stud. (Actually, I have several watch movements of this type.) There doesn't appear to be any way to unscrew the stud; nor is there any room to pry it off. This is on an inexpensive EB movement. How does one remove the hairspring from the balance cock in these cases? Is a special tool required? Thanks!