Is it me or is it bergeon

[quantieme]

So I need to wind in a left handed mainspring but I only have right in my favourite set, I go to cousins and order a left handed arbor hoping it will fit and joy of joys it fits perfectly what a result I think.  I start winding and get a third of the way before this happens, it keeps slipping on the arbor and the reason is bergeon have put a flat cutout on the arbor instead of leaving it round so as you can see it does not quite catch the notch, I have been trying for an hour and a half to get this to catch by trying to bend the end of the spring but if I keep going I know my luck will run out and it will snap and it will be another visit to cousins and £22 for a new spring and I will still have the same problem so why oh why would they put that cutout in. Is it me or is it bergeon .

[quantieme]

Well it’s taken me 2 hours but I’ve done it, rightly or wrongly I filed the leading edge on the arbor to make it more round which has done the trick.

[Tmuir]

The price might not of gone down on Bergeon tools, but it does seem the quality has.

I guess part of it must be economies of scale. How many watchmakers bought tools from Bergeon 30 years ago compared to today?

[noirrac1j]

I've gotten quite good results with hand winding--everything!

 

J

[AndyHull]

1 hour ago, noirrac1j said:

I've gotten quite good results with hand winding--everything!

 

J

Once you get the hang of it, hand winding isn't too difficult. It does give your thumbs a good workout though.

[JohnR725]

The handle you purchased with the recess is the way it's supposed to be made. There designed specifically for NIVAFLEX Mainsprings which require a recess. Then there was the older style that doesn't have a recess which was made for the blued steel Springs as the modern style won't work with those at all.  The problem is the Swiss assumption that all modern Springs are exactly the same leads to problems with the handles not always working.

Then hand winding mainsprings is generally frowned upon in modern watch repair unfortunately sometimes it's necessary.

[quantieme]

At least I got it done in the end, I have tried hand winding before but I can never do it and my old favourite set has never let me down. It was only the fact that I was servicing a seiko bell Matic that I needed a left hand winder, last time I used the old put it in a washer trick and turn it over method but even that let me down this time,I just couldn’t do it.