Hairsprings books info websites etc

[Daniel123]

Hi, realised I have a gap in my knowledge about hairsprings, can anyone point me towards a good website book etc... to learn about them.

cheers

Dan

[watchweasol]

Hi this is an old book but the principals remain the same, hope you find it interesting.

TheWatchAdjustersManual_10245884 (3).pdf

[transporter]

experience mate, also check out marks videos on youtube, i believe old hippy put a link up on another thread with an interesting video ref hairspring manipulation. Ive just spent the best part of a day getting one flat and coils evenly spaced, nightmare but got it done in the end.

[Fraczish]

Is there a supplier for replacements? Assuming not if your going to all that effort..

I bent one recently and ordered a balance complete from eBay. Wondered if they are available just as a hairspring?

[transporter]

2 minutes ago, Fraczish said:

Is there a supplier for replacements? Assuming not if your going to all that effort..

I bent one recently and ordered a balance complete from eBay. Wondered if they are available just as a hairspring?

was that for me mate? no supplier for new parts on the pocket watch i am working on, its approx 100 years old so its good old love and care to get things slrted, look at my post "broken pivot" ans youll see what i mean

[Fraczish]

More so in general really Pal, after fighting with one for a couple of days it would be good to know if there was.

I'll check the thread out though, sounds very interesting. 

[transporter]

a labour of love is all i'm going to say

[Nucejoe]

Hairsprings specific to a caliber are hard to find for a piece this old.

Balance wheels produced back then( prior to standardisation) for a given caliber did not all weigh the same, so each wheel had to be vibrated with a compatible hairspring.The main parameter you be concerned with is call CGS of the hairspring, normally the same for variants of a family. Here is a thread I posted on the subject.

 

 

[JohnR725]

On 6/8/2020 at 8:50 AM, Fraczish said:

Is there a supplier for replacements? Assuming not if your going to all that effort..

I bent one recently and ordered a balance complete from eBay. Wondered if they are available just as a hairspring?

A long time ago they used to be companies or individuals who would vibrate hairsprings to your balance wheel. I don't know if there's anybody left doing it they were slowly dying out. One of the problems is not the skill set necessarily because most students of a modern watch school get a basic training on how to vibrate hairsprings so the knowledge is out there. The problem is for vibrating hairsprings that the Swiss no longer make packets of CGS hairsprings.  In the BHI Journal August 2007  is a rather nice article on hairsprings. At the very beginning they talk about where at one time you could buy packets the hairsprings but that's a thing of the past. The Swiss keep trying to figure out better ways to do things so they hairspring companies  or company I don't know how many there are left. They make  hairsprings for specific watch manufacturers. Then either the manufacture of the watch vibrates the hairsprings themselves or they hairspring company will do that as a service.

Then if you just have a slightly mangled hairspring good book to get is Bench Practices for Watch Repairers Paperback  by Henry B. Fried Then the version I have says copyrighted 1954, 1974. It's a little cryptic as to what got revised in74.. The reason I point out the years because  I think there's a variety of reproductions and the reproductions might not have  everything C need to get the right version of the book and it's hard to tell online which is the right version. In any case the version I have the first 64 pages is on hairsprings. Then probably the most important aspect of the book is about 20 pages in the hairspring section is on how to fix  bed up hairsprings  put them back the way they're supposed to like.

 

 

[marcoskaiser]

On 6/8/2020 at 6:38 AM, watchweasol said:

Hi this is an old book but the principals remain the same, hope you find it interesting.

TheWatchAdjustersManual_10245884 (3).pdf 9.45 MB · 11 downloads

It is indeed interesting! Do you happen to have the full version in pdf? The link you provided obscures a few sessions for non-subscribers..:(

[watchweasol]

Hi  Unfortuatly not ,  It is usual practice to do that in order to encourage  subscribers.  Is there anthing specific you are interested in regarding hairsprings or is it just a general overall knowledge you are looking for.                  cheers

[watchweasol]

Here is a site which gives chapter and verse on the manufacture of hair springs

https://monochrome-watches.com/technical-perspective-manufacturing-process-hairsprings-explained-with-videos-e2o-innovations/                  cheers.

[marcoskaiser]

3 hours ago, watchweasol said:

Hi  Unfortuatly not ,  It is usual practice to do that in order to encourage  subscribers.  Is there anthing specific you are interested in regarding hairsprings or is it just a general overall knowledge you are looking for.                  cheers

Just general knowledge in my case. Also the book looks beautifully typesetted.

thanks for sharing!

[watchweasol]

Hi Daniel   its my pleasure you are very welcome.

[Daniel123]

Just caught up with the thread, awesome information thanks guys. I had come to the conclusion that hairsprings are becoming rare so some skill in manipulating them would be useful. 

[watchweasol]

Hi Have a look on the net  the conventional hairsprings  (metal ,Invar) are being changed to silicone ones.  an interesting subject as they are not bothered by magnetism. The process ia as yet in its infancy.

[JohnR725]

8 hours ago, marcoskaiser said:

It is indeed interesting! Do you happen to have the full version in pdf? The link you provided obscures a few sessions for non-subscribers..:(

One of the things interesting about some PDFs found online is if somebody has them others may also. So the subscription firm has cleaned up the copy but it's available in its entirety someplace else like at the link below. Nice thing with this website is everything is free and it's available in a variety of formats. Just hasn't been cleaned up as nice as the other site but it's very very usable and it's 100% there

Then while you're there why don't you do a search for other books or to get you started I have the second link should keep you busy for a few hours or days. Looks like they've added considerably to the collection since the last time I was here.

https://archive.org/details/cihm_03260

https://archive.org/search.php?query=subject%3A"Clocks+and+watches"&page=3

[JGrainger]

It will be interesting to see what happens once some of the silicon patents expire.

[watchweasol]

I guess when that happens   the band wagon will be well and truly jumped on by the Aaisian manufacturers.

[watchweasol]

Hi JohnR725     An Interesting web site a lot of useful data there    thanks.

[JohnR725]

Rolex has an interesting video on their Parachrom Hairspring. Basically a short video showing more or less all the steps skipping a few key ones probably for patents reasons. Like the forming of the over coil and the final heat treating seems to be missing but still an interesting video.

https://youtu.be/W7r-lxpSv2M

Then Omega's silicon hairspring

https://youtu.be/MZ9j-MYDs9Y