Bulova do not open mainspring?

[markr]

I have a Bulova do not open mainspring.  Do I throw the whole thing intact in my Bulova watch master ultrasonic cleaner or do I clean just clean the outside of barrel by hand?

[dadistic]

Hmm, here's what I do with these barrels and mainsprings.

First, I always pop the lid off. It says do not open, but it's really just a regular barrel and mainspring that has graphite grease in it. 

Then if it has a mainspring with a seperate bridle, and I think it looks OK, I pull the arbor and run that through my cleaner, and peg the holes in the barrel and lid. I don't like removing those two piece mainsprings, they are a PITA to reinstall, I've never had any success with a mainspring winder, and winding them in by hand is a giant hassle.  I only pull them if I'm going to replace the spring with a modern one piece version.

I always evaluate after putting them back in the watch, I want to make sure that they get to a full wind and then slip.  In fact, I have one right now in a watch that I am not happy with, it doesn't seem to be getting to a full wind, and I'm not surprised,  as when I inspected it it looked like someone had added a bunch of oil to it at some point. The bridel is probably slipping way to soon. Now I have to decide if I want to pop for a new mainspring, or once again fight with a two piece spring. 

 

Oh well.