First Omega refurb - mainspring blunder

[whathaveidone]

Wanted to share a good blunder.  Restoring a cal 490.  Great project with lots of fun challenges. One being getting a mainspring into the barrel without a winder.  I restored an old pocket watch and hand winding the spring was pretty straight forward - it's just a coil.  Getting the mainspring into the barrel was actually easy. But when I got to the end I realized I had it backwards.  Not wound in the wrong direction but backwards.  The result was a completely mishaped mainspring. Thankfully sourcing these are fairly easy.  Here's to the journey!

 

 

[Kalanag]

Your pocket watch had a blue standard spring most likely. A modern, s-shaped mainspring can fool you easily then. 

Edited April 21, 2023 by Kalanag

[KarlvonKoln]

Interesting.  I've heard with the "S"-shaped mainsprings there are four ways to put them in, but only one way is right.  Two ways are wrong...and one way is very, very wrong.
I faced that situation on an old Longines.  I loaded it into the winder, then started second-guessing myself as I saw how it would end up.  I had to stare at it for a couple minutes before I realized I had it right after all.

[whathaveidone]

A few more bent mainsprings and I could have just purchased a winder