Re-Attatchment Of A Hairspring On A Jaeger Lecoultre Watch

Wolfy · October 30, 2015

I recently bought at auction a 1950 Jaeger LeCoultre manual wind watch which during viewing was working and keeping good time. Having received the watch it was found to be not working . Upon closer examination I discovered the hairspring has broken just short of the outer stud attachment.

anyone got any ideas or technique for re-attaching the end of the hair spring to the triangular stud????

It is incredibly small and quite a slippery thing to hold onto which makes it near impossible to remove the holding pin and re-insert the end of the spring.

CKelly · October 30, 2015

Hi,

I'm afraid you may need a replacement hairspring. If it is really broken, even at the end next to the stud when you get it attached it will now be shorter causing the watch to run too fast. Watch would also be out of beat because you would rotate the balance toward the stud holder. If you take some close up pictures of the movement someone may be able to help you find a replacement. Since it arrived not working you might have asked for a refund however since you have already started working on it that may be out of the question now.

Charles K

StuartBaker104 · October 30, 2015

I've got away with this once before. If it's broken right by the stud you may be able to fix it and still have enough adjustment, although as above you will have to adjust out the beat error. It's best to remove the hairspring from the balance anyway. Theoretically you can add weights to the balance screws to compensate for the shorter spring, but this could send you mad.

There is an expensive special tool (surprise surprise) for doing this - search for hairspring studding table, but a nice alternative is described here... http://www.tp178.com/jd/watch-school/6/article.html

IIRC DeCarle describes using a piar of tweezers with a slot in one blade to push the pin home. If you plan on doing this frequently then look out for some!

S

clockboy · October 30, 2015

As above if the hairspring is broken to short & it will always run fast. A bit naughty really to state it is a running watch when it clearly was not. Might be worth contacting the seller

JohnR725 · October 30, 2015

It would be nice to have a much better picture of the balance wheel with the hairspring and the stud.

So as mentioned from others it can be fixed providing not too much is gone. The more that's gone the more complicated it becomes. Broken at the stud just requires pushing out the old pin and re-pinning. Then yes you're going to be running fast you might be able just regulated. More than likely you will need timing washers for the balance. Fortunately it looks like you have timing screws and you can put the timing washers in pairs under the screws.. The timing washers come with specifications of how slow they will make the watch depending upon the size of the balance wheel.

Then a course you're going to have to put the watch back and beat but I assume everyone checks that with their watches they work on anyway?

Then all of this is dependent upon your skill set at working with hairsprings. To give a clue of the skills required look at the link previously given on hairsprings. At all a nice pictures to successfully made hairspring and does he mention how many hairsprings he went through to get here? This is almost no longer done at that school due to the fact that getting raw hairsprings is exceedingly difficult. In the schools previously that did this the students would go through hundreds of hairsprings learning how to do this now they're given a very limited quantity and at some point in time this will no longer be taught in schools because there will be no hairsprings left.. So you're going to need some practice if you haven't done this before whatever you do do not practice on this watch. Otherwise you're going to need a balance complete which probably isn't available or if it is is going to be expensive.

Geo · October 31, 2015

Excellent advice as usual John.

GeorgeClarkson · November 3, 2015

This is not the first time I read of having trouble in the future finding hairsprings. But why is that? I really don't think there exists a finite number of hairsprings, that soon will be not available anymore... Aren't they being manufactured anymore???

JohnR725 · November 3, 2015

This is not the first time I read of having trouble in the future finding hairsprings. But why is that? I really don't think there exists a finite number of hairsprings, that soon will be not available anymore... Aren't they being manufactured anymore???

Interesting observation so are they still making hairsprings yes. Somewhere there must exist the statistical numbers of mechanical watches made worldwide the number of hairsprings being made must be in the millions so we definitely have zero shortage of hairsprings.. Of course one of the minor issues is those millions a hairsprings are being made for specific watches so what about the rest of us who aren't manufacturing watches?

So British horological Institute in their journal published August 2007 have a rather interesting article.. Title Swiss balance Springs by Anthony Randall FBHI gives a brief history of Balance Springs. A rather nice article I have a PDF copy I'm reading right now which I would attach if no one thought it would offend the BHI. So it starts off with up until recently It was possible to obtain 'raw' balance Springs from Switzerland. Basically it means the person writing the article has just discovered that raw hairsprings are a thing of the past which by now puts us in a crisis condition for hairsprings. That is if you want to vibrate your own. It's why the schools now limit the number hairsprings a student can vibrate because in the old days you went through a lot a hairsprings learning how to vibrate..

So what happened to all the hairsprings? A variety of financial and other conditions have occurred and each time these occur in Switzerland the companies reorganize or disappear. So financial crisis eliminate all the hairspring companies except two in Switzerland. Then the next crisis in the 70s was the quartz watch which leaves us with only one hairspring company. Then perception was the mechanical watch was dead. Then Swatch group purchases that company. There is an indication in the article that there are other companies producing hairsprings but basically only for their watches.

clockboy · November 3, 2015

I have used this company in the past BUT most of the springs are supplied without the centre collet. This is a skill in itself (trust me I have destroyed many trying to achieve this) also this company are very slow with orders.

I have a lot of hairsprings in my stock but it,s amazing I never seem to have a suitable one when needed.

http://www.britishprecisionsprings.co.uk/index.html

Ado213 · November 3, 2015

John has given you good advice on the addition of timing washers if you shorten you hairspring. There are different hole sizes of these as well as weight, so make sure you get the correct ones for your timing screws and always add two washers diametrically opposite or you'll throw the poise way out.

Hairsprings, hmm my favourite nemesis. Again John has the correct handle on the dwindling availability. As far as I am aware Ofrei are the only ones selling new colleted springs. Unfortunately they don't sell using the cg's system, but work on the balance diameter. They imply that you should by three springs, one for the exact balance diameter, the one above and the one below in diameter. A very expensive way of doing it that is not gaurenteed, add that to their ridiculous shipping rates and it becomes very expensive, but one of our only options.

There is a formula to calculate the hairspring you need that does work, however Ofrei's site does not allow you to use this data in any meaningful way. Perhaps British spring could help although I have never used them.

I have read many articles on Spring selection, most of these were written in the 20's and 40's when an abundance of hairsprings were available, trial and error was the key to initial selection. Unfortunately this is no longer the case today.

JohnR725 · November 3, 2015

I remember the last time I was looking for hairsprings I did find there some other suppliers out there haven't found them yet but googling did find some things you'd find interesting. Then I was reminded there's another reason why we're lacking hairsprings sort of. They've changed how they're making them such as now their made from silicon

Then it looks like the hairspring companies expanded its business here's a write up in the first link.

http://www.ablogtowatch.com/inside-nivarox-the-heart-of-the-swiss-watch-industry/

Then googling is wonderful all sorts of things appear like the next three links all kinds of interesting things on hairsprings and for those people would've lost their mind and think they want a vibrator hairspring that's covered to.

http://www.awci.com/wp-content/uploads/watch-tech-guides/Hairspring/Part-1.pdf

http://www.awci.com/wp-content/uploads/watch-tech-guides/Hairspring/Part-2.pdf

http://www.awci.com/wp-content/uploads/watch-tech-guides/Hairspring/Part-3.pdf

Then I remembered where I've seen hairsprings before this link very bottom of the page. Plus they have a chart.

http://www.dashto.com/newlists/selectedothermaterials.htm