Replacement mainspring for Seagull ST3621 movement (Chinese ETA 6498)

[AndyShap]

Well, I guess I needed to practice.  I've broken the mainspring for my student movement ( used in Mark's course).  Does anyone know where I can find a replacement mainspring? 

I've searched everywhere I can think of : Cousins, Esslinger, Otto Frei, Cas-Ker, etc.

[JohnR725]

the problem is the Chinese do not supply spare parts they only sell movements. Next problem is this is really a clone of a 6497 sword of. It's actually a 6497 – something possibly to the Remember. We've also discussed it before somewhere in this message board you can try to search. In the meantime would you give me the dimensions of the spring that's currently in the watch as that would help to figure out what it is and is not.

[Sirius]

Buy another ST3621 as a Donnor for Spares, it is the cheapest Solution...

If you find a Mainspring for a ETA6498/6497 is it a -1 or a -2 ? The Price will be close to a complete ST3621........

i did buy recently 3 ST3620 to have one to play with, one as Spare-Parts and one to build a running Watch.

 

regards

Ernst

[AndyShap]

12 hours ago, JohnR725 said:

the problem is the Chinese do not supply spare parts they only sell movements. Next problem is this is really a clone of a 6497 sword of. It's actually a 6497 – something possibly to the Remember. We've also discussed it before somewhere in this message board you can try to search. In the meantime would you give me the dimensions of the spring that's currently in the watch as that would help to figure out what it is and is not.

See the next reply for my solution.  I think I really have a 6498 it IS an ST3621.  The 6498 has the second hand at 6 o'clock, the 6497 has it at 9 o'clock

5 hours ago, Sirius said:

Buy another ST3621 as a Donnor for Spares, it is the cheapest Solution...

If you find a Mainspring for a ETA6498/6497 is it a -1 or a -2 ? The Price will be close to a complete ST3621........

i did buy recently 3 ST3620 to have one to play with, one as Spare-Parts and one to build a running Watch.

 

regards

Ernst

After hours of searching, I too realized that a 6498 mainspring is $25 plus shipping. So I just ordered a new ST3621 from Aliexpress ($34).  As you mentioned, I'll get the whole movement to replace my next failures as I practice on this watch.

P.S. Thank you for all of the suggestions!

[JohnR725]

19 minutes ago, AndyShap said:

  I think I really have a 6498 it IS an ST3621.  The 6498 has the second hand at 6 o'clock, the 6497 has it at 9 o'clock

I snipped out an image off of the eta website you will note there are two separate pocket watches 6497 and the 6498 you'll notice the relationship of the stem to the secondhand.

20 minutes ago, AndyShap said:

6498 mainspring

then we discussed this before I found it for everybody

notice how the discussion starts off pretty simple he is need a 6490 whatever mainspring. But as everyone's discovered is cheaper just to buy a new movement and it has the bonus of others spare parts that you're probably going to need.

But notice in the discussion that the numbers in particular the – two really is important. It's not just there because they can put it there. I snipped out some images while I was on the eta site and noticed the variations. One runs in 18,000 beats per hour and has a reserve of 52 hours. The other is basically enhanced it's running at a higher frequency and it has a longer run time. As the watches are basically identical almost they would've had the change the mainspring barrel and or components and the mainspring to achieve this.

So when you look at the discussion found at the link below you can see that the standard 649x whatever mainspring will not fit in the Chinese clone which is basically a 649x-2 so you really do have to get the right mainspring. 

 

[AndyShap]

2 minutes ago, JohnR725 said:

I snipped out an image off of the eta website you will note there are two separate pocket watches 6497 and the 6498 you'll notice the relationship of the stem to the secondhand.

then we discussed this before I found it for everybody

notice how the discussion starts off pretty simple he is need a 6490 whatever mainspring. But as everyone's discovered is cheaper just to buy a new movement and it has the bonus of others spare parts that you're probably going to need.

But notice in the discussion that the numbers in particular the – two really is important. It's not just there because they can put it there. I snipped out some images while I was on the eta site and noticed the variations. One runs in 18,000 beats per hour and has a reserve of 52 hours. The other is basically enhanced it's running at a higher frequency and it has a longer run time. As the watches are basically identical almost they would've had the change the mainspring barrel and or components and the mainspring to achieve this.

So when you look at the discussion found at the link below you can see that the standard 649x whatever mainspring will not fit in the Chinese clone which is basically a 649x-2 so you really do have to get the right mainspring. 

 

This is the 6497, the second hand is directly below the stem. This means when you mount it in the watch, with the stem in the 3 o'clock position, the seconds hand will be at 9pm.  In My 6498 movement, when the stem is at the 3 0'clock position, my seconds hand is at the 6 o'clock position.

[ShenLun]

http://www.eta.ch/swisslab/6497/6947.html
Shows nothing, can you please advise where I can get it again. I like the idea of step by step stripping, lubricants and re assembly

[JohnR725]

3 hours ago, ShenLun said:

Shows nothing, can you please advise where I can get it again. I like the idea of step by step stripping, lubricants and re assembly

you need to read the fine print on the website when you get there

This content requires the Macromedia Flash Player 8 or newer.

the above that I copied and pasted off the website is a message to tell you that you need a flash player. Unfortunately flash no longer exists it's done some other way and it's been removed from all of our browsers so none of us can see us. There are ways to do this like if you had an older browser or basically a much older computer running out older operating system with everything just older. I had seen but I found it confusing so I didn't do it there are some self-contained browsers that have flash built in I think for this specific situation it have to track down those and see if that would work. But otherwise were all screwed because it was done an older system that no longer exists because I had four separate watch is and I believe a dictionary that use the same flash to produce the animation and stuff.