Obtaining a Hairspring

[WildBill]

Hi, can someone tell me where I can get a new Hairspring, the one to be replaced is from a 50 year plus old watch, which has see better days.

 

[Tiktok]

9 minutes ago, WildBill said:

Hi, can someone tell me where I can get a new Hairspring, the one to be replaced is from a 50 year plus old watch, which has see better days.

 

Preferably you need the calibre number if it has one off the movement, generally under/around the balance or on a bridge. Probably easier to find balance complete rather than replacing the hairspring.

[khunter]

Without the proper tools replacing a hairspring alone can be crazy hard to do. Generally in most movements of any quality at all the spring is tuned, or vibrated, to the specific balance wheel to which it is attached. I'd go with a complete balance wheel if at all possible. A donor movement may be a good place to start. 

[JohnR725]

While 50 years may seem like a long time for just about everything getting serviced for a watch it's not. It's possible you might Be able to get a balance complete New. Then they used to be people who would Vibrate hair Springs for you I'm not sure if anybody still does that? The problem is the raw hairsprings are no longer available they haven't been made for years. Everything now is made for specific watches or the watch company sends their balances to hairspring company for them to do. So other than a novelty vibrating a hairspring is almost a thing of the past almost.

[jdm]

29 minutes ago, JohnR725 said:

Then they used to be people who would Vibrate hair Springs for you I'm not sure if anybody still does that? 

It's still taught in school. http://raulhorology.com/2012/11/the-mark-of-a-true-watchmaker-hairsprings-part-2-vibrating-the-spring-using-a-luthy-tool/

Maybe these laureate watchmakers will not use the skill in their career, but the knowledge is certainly not lost.

[measuretwice]

The first  60 pages or so of Fried's Bench Practices for Watch and Clock makers gives an excellent treatise on what is needed to select and vibrate a hairspring.  It would be a great starting point.  

Apparently they used to sell assortments from which an appropriate one could be select ones to try that was decided on by a hanging test.  I don't know whether such selections are still sold, but the book suggests its a bit of trial and error selection process.  I've got a few from some lots I bought that maybe one day will get used

Edited January 26, 2018 by measuretwice

[Marc]

Back in the day it used to be possible to buy vibrated hair springs for specific calibres. How do I know? Because I have some NOS calibrated hair springs which came to me in a job lot from an old watchmakers estate.

If you can identify the calibre it's always worth looking out for replacement hais springs even if they aren't made today but you may need a lot of patience.

Let us know what calibre it's for and I will check my stock.

 

[JohnR725]

5 hours ago, jdm said:

Maybe these laureate watchmakers will not use the skill in their career, but the knowledge is certainly not lost

It's not that we don't necessarily want to vibrated hairsprings the problem is there are no more raw hairsprings left to vibrate for the most part. Even the schools still teaching hairspring vibrating have reduce the requirements down to basically one hairspring because they don't have any replacements. A number the years ago the Swiss went from producing generic hairsprings to only producing them for specific watches. So even if you want to practice what you learned in school there's not a lot to practice with anymore.

[JohnR725]

4 hours ago, Marc said:

Back in the day it used to be possible to buy vibrated hair springs for specific calibres. How do I know? Because I have some NOS calibrated hair springs which came to me in a job lot from an old watchmakers estate.

Typically with American pocket watches with over coils those could be purchased separate from the balance wheel. This is because they shaped them to a very specific shape first then put them on the balance wheel. But at the same time you could buy timing screws because you're definitely going to need those if you're putting the hairspring on like this. I once did this with Hamilton deck watches I was restoring six of them balance wheels were in one box they hairsprings were in another. Fortunately I had Hamilton timing screws. So more than likely other companies had hairsprings available but you do have to have a way of adjusting the weight of the balance wheel to match.

[WildBill]

Hi All, Thank you very much for your interesting comments,  the calibre is FHF ST 96. a new Balance complete would be the perfect answer. I followed Mark's video on straightening out the hairspring, I removed it from the Balance wheel with hand removers, then removed the stud from the bridge, on attempting to straighten the hairspring the stud come off, I managed to get the stud back on the hairspring but the small brass retaining pin pinged out off the tweezers into oblivion. Eventually I got some new pins and managed to

secure the stud to the spring....I found this was the most difficult thing I have ever had to do..."THIS WAS NOT EASY" .

I assembled it all back together and put it back in the movement, although it worked the amplitude was very low, I had serviced the watch with cleaning and fresh oil...I think it can only be the hairspring not working right

[ausimax]

There are still quite a few watches with this calibre about, do an eBay search:

An example here is one from India, yeah I know,  but the watch is cheap enough and it is running so you aren't risking too much.

 https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/VINTAGE-NIVADA-17-JEWELS-HAND-WINDING-ST-96-MOVEMENT-MENS-DIAL-WRIST-WATCH-A245/202216872961?hash=item2f15109c01:g:71gAAOSwzilZ3N8m

[khunter]

14 hours ago, WildBill said:

Hi All, Thank you very much for your interesting comments,  the calibre is FHF ST 96. a new Balance complete would be the perfect answer. I followed Mark's video on straightening out the hairspring, I removed it from the Balance wheel with hand removers, then removed the stud from the bridge, on attempting to straighten the hairspring the stud come off, I managed to get the stud back on the hairspring but the small brass retaining pin pinged out off the tweezers into oblivion. Eventually I got some new pins and managed to

secure the stud to the spring....I found this was the most difficult thing I have ever had to do..."THIS WAS NOT EASY" .

I assembled it all back together and put it back in the movement, although it worked the amplitude was very low, I had serviced the watch with cleaning and fresh oil...I think it can only be the hairspring not working right

Make sure after straightening the hairspring you didn't tweek it where it's rubbing on either the balance arms or the bridge. Adjusting a hairspring is the most tedious job there is in my opinion. It takes only the slightest touch and it's out of alignment.