Favre-leuba pallet fork end stone spring

[bsoderling]

Picked up a dirt cheap sea-chief on the local auction site that expectedly turned out fake(ish) with a repainted dial.

 

Movement appeared to the untrained eye decent even though grimy and oxidized, so decided an attempt to service.

 

The pallet fork has end stones with tiny horseshoe shaped springs to hold in place and I obviously managed to break one in two when attempting to re-fit.

 

Havent seen that type before and wonder if anyone can guide in the right direction for spares?

 

And if there’s any best practise out there for mounting these nightmarish things, I’m all ears.

 

The movement is stamped 107 under the balance and there’s a serial no as well. Haven’t been able to id it from that info and grateful for id-assistance. Is it legit or fake all the way?

 

 

 

 

 

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[HSL]

The movement looks OK but I'm not familiar with the 107, but there were two other very similat movements caliber 101 and caliber 112.

[bsoderling]

Thanks, will check on those.

And then it’s the escapement wheel that has the end stones, not the pallet fork as I mistakenly wrote.

I tried to make a spring from one of the assorted click springs I got from Cousins but that darned thing is really flat and even the thinnest click spring material won’t slip into the grove that holds the spring :-(




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[GeorgeC]

I found this site related to that spring type https://www.great-british-watch.co.uk/watch-anti-shock-settings/
It seems that some of the images don’t load.


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[GeorgeC]

When I oil these type jewels, I will use my smallest screwdriver blade and insert in the gap indicated in the image and would gently rotate the screwdriver clockwise to pry the tab from under the inserting.
Next gently move the spring down and toward the 7 o’clock direction just enough to allow you to use rodico to lift out the cap jewel. Never attempt to remove the spring entirely.
Resecuring the spring is more of the challenge for me. I will move the spring back up to the position and gently try and reverse the process of how it was released as described above.



Hope this helps.


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[bsoderling]

That makes sense! I was actually trying something in that direction but it felt as if the force needed would be too much. Wasn’t thinking about rotating a blade, which obviously offers more control.

Decided to believe that the wide part that you pushed out might be the “hinge” that needed to stay in. Wrong decision obviously.

I assembled the movement without the cap jewel and can’t really see that it has too much effect. Dial up/down doesn’t change much and the rate is easily adjusted.

If it proves hard to get the spring, I might just leave as is. It’s not like the value will drop by any significant amount...:-)

[rogart63]

There is a Favre -leuba 107 movement so could very well be right. The spring looks like a Seiko diafix or Rolex which is also  called something with dia. 

[GeorgeC]

Can you verify by research the duofix spring number this model takes for me?
Will be 10-2 or 10-3 I believe but, just want you to try and check.





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[GeorgeC]

I found this image that shows the intended release process for releasing the retainer clip/spring in order to simply remove the cap jewel for oiling and replacing.  If I find a scrapper watch with this type of spring, I will record a video and post of its installation into the setting.

[GeorgeC]

I may have only inserted a new spring in a setting like this 2 or 3 times.
My method would be to use non-magnetic or demagnetized tweezers. Install one leg of the spring under the setting rim. Now place a small bead of rodico in that area to keep the spring from flying away.  If you grasp the middle of the spring with your tweezers in a low profile in horizontal alignment with the movement, you will further maintain control of the spring.  Use another tweezer or instrument to gently nudge the other spring leg in its place.

See the second post in the forum link below.  He seems to describe a similar method for installing the spring if it is out of the setting.  "Hold the middle of the spring and insert one side and with another instrument and your other hand, gently nudge the other leg of the spring under the setting rim lip."

https://www.thewatchsite.com/34-watchmaking-tinkering/145530-how-do-you-replace-diashock-cap-jewel-spring.html

Edited June 11, 2019 by GeorgeC

[aac58]

In this video from VTA you can see a technique to deal with those Diafix, even how to put them back in case they comes out of its place. It doesn't look easy to me though.

Edited June 11, 2019 by aac58

[bsoderling]

Hi guys,

GeorgeC kindly offered to send me a spring all the way from Kentucky to Sweden!

And the video gives a very good insight in the practises needed, not for just getting the cap jewel in/out but also when, as in my case, the spring has come away alltogether.

Thinking back, I believe a major mistake I made was to try to get the spring in with the cap jewel in place. This requires much more force on the one free leg to get it in as the spring also has to bend to fit the top curve of the jewel.

That’s not saying it’s going to be easy or succesful doing it the ”good” way ... :-)

But I will have to give it a try when the spring arrives!

Thanks for all valuable contribution here. I hope there are others out there that can benefit as well.




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