Re: how do the Chinese do it

On Wed, 13 Jul 2011 23:46:11 +1000, dAz wrote:


tried to buy a mainspring for a vintage waltham pocket watch the other
day, it's only 130years old, always have be able to buy springs for
these, except was told by my supplier that they can no longer supply,
why? well it seem when swatch took over quite a few companies in
Switzerland, one of them was Resorts SA, a maker of all things in watch
mainsprings, I don't know how long they have been in business, probably
a 100 years or more, they supplied springs for everybody, well no
longer, the first thing swatch did was to cease all production and only
make springs for their watches, thank you swatch.

I did find a new spring, I shaved one down that was too wide, but had
the right thickness and length,no I was not going to buy a blue steel
spring from ebay, because if they are anything like the ones I have in
the box they have gone rusty or stressed fractured into many pieces, the
watch is working fine.

excuse me now, I have sudden urge to introduce a swatch to a large hammer :)

Stop whinging.
You have it easy.

Walthams -- vintage or not -- are mass-produced and standardised.
Try finding a mainspring for an English watch from that same
period. Then it becomes a matter of knowing the right retired
engineer working in a garden shed somewhere who might run you up
a one-off proper blued-steel mainspring for the love of horology
and challenge of the job.

For that matter, mainsprings are *easy*. Glass is harder to
source, and enamel dials are next to impossible.
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: how do the Chinese do it
    ... there is a german made version of this watch I have with a real UT6497, ... I have been told by a reliable source that swatch are planing to make ... for an eta 2824 is about $150, the seagull clone is around $40, I would ... tried to buy a mainspring for a vintage waltham pocket watch the other day, it's only 130years old, always have be able to buy springs for these, except was told by my supplier that they can no longer supply, why? ...
    (alt.horology)
  • Re: roamer gaining
    ... gaining about 30 mins over 12hours approx. ... so would anyone like to hazard a guess to why the watch is gaining like mad? ... skipping on a broken tooth? ... Mainspring right length ...
    (alt.horology)
  • Re: Rolex warranty myth?
    ... stuck on the end of a pair of long and very fine springs. ... providing lock and push alternatingly on the index wheel. ... The tuning fork was also about the least shock resistant of all ... two springs jump over each other and stop the watch. ...
    (alt.horology)
  • Re: Follow Up Re: Still Limited Power Reserve...What Should I Do?
    ... So I manually wound the watch 30 to 40 rotations of the winding stem. ... 26hours suggest to me that the mainspring bridle is slipping too much, those movements should have according to the ETA service manual 42hours power reserve. ... whenever I do an auto I test the barrel for slippage or binding, if the mainspring has been incorrectly lubricated then the spring will slip around and unwind itself a few turns losing several hours of power reserve, instead the bridle should slide along the barrel when the spring is near to fully wound. ...
    (alt.horology)
  • No more mainsprings from SwitzerlanD
    ... My watchmaker came back from Perrins, ... A mainspring for a Bulova used to be $5-12. ... Crystals have gone from $2 to $22 overnight, ... Need Mercedes parts? ...
    (alt.horology)