Favre Leuba 253

[andyr1968]

Hello to you all, this is my first post and I'm a novice watch tinkerer. I'm hoping that there is somebody out that that can give me some advice with a little restoration project that I've recently started. I have a Favre Leuba 253 movement that needed a new hairspring, I ended up buying a balance and hairspring complete from Cousins. My problem is that I can't see a way to attach the hairspring stud to the support on the balance bridge. The stud seems to be a push fit as there's no screw to release the stud. In my limited experience I can't think of a way to do it without a big risk of damaging the hairspring. Is there someone out there who has had experience of these movements or some advice as to how to tackle the job. I've added a picture of the bridge and balance to this post. Many thanks in advance.

Andy

[clockboy]

I have not worked on this movement but it looks like just a push fit. You might have to manipulate the hair springs final curve to get it to align correctly. Someone else on this forum may have better experience with this movements set up.

[clockwatcher]

Hello Andy,

 

Forum member Icius did a service on a 253 recently. Could one of the Mods point you in the right direction - I don't yet know how to create a link to it.

[andyr1968]

Thanks Clockboy, I agree it does look to be a simple push fit, however in practice it doesn't. (Push in, I mean) The stud is larger than the hole on the support, by necessity I suppose otherwise it wouldn't stay put afterwards. My problem is that I'm not able to hold the stud with tweezers and exert enough pressure to push the stud into place without the whole thing pinging across the room or worse mangling the hairspring. I'm wondering if there is a method to do this using another tool, a staking set for example?

[clockboy]

You could send Icius a PM & he might be able to help

[andyr1968]

Thank you gents. I've sent a PM to Icius with a brief outline of my dilemma. Hopefully he can point me in the right direction.

Regards

Andy

[anilv]

Hi Andy,

 

From what I recall, the stud is fixed into  one of the holes in the captive plate ( you can remove the visible screw to release said plate).

 

This plate can be moved and this is how you set the beat. You need tighten this screw down lightly and assembled the balance. Once the beat is set, removed the balance and tighten it down snugly.

 

HTH

Anil

[Geo]

Welcome to the forum Andy.

I'm not familiar with that movement, but I'll be surprised if you don't get the correct procedure from someone on the forum.

[icius]

Andy,  welcome to the forum.  When I serviced the 253 I did not have to replace the balance so not sure how much help I can be.  I would have thought the little semi-circle plate would have come pre-mounted on a new one.  It is definitely just a press fit.  Here is the only picture I have of it:

 

 

Myself I don't think I would attempt this without using a staking set or something pretty precise.  As you said,  the chance of slipping and wrecking the hairspring would be pretty high.  

[andyr1968]

Thanks to everybody for your suggestions and advice. I'm going to have a crack at placing it with a tool from my staking set, hopefully at some point this weekend. I'll post the results when I'm done, be they successful or not.

Andy

[anilv]

There are two holes in the end piece... I would try both.

HTH

Anil