What happened to the hairspring in this watch? 😩 

Thanks! That hairspring was so damaged it could never be perfect, and it might have been a wiser choice to replace it.

@@VintageWatchServices Maybe, but you didn't give up on it, and I appreciated that.

It’s good to see this for when it’s easier than finding a replacement…

I wholeheartedly agree! I had no idea that it was possible to perform those tweaks and end up with a hair spring that _actually_ keeps good time. I thought for sure that it was going directly into the bin. A couple months ago, I went the bench, already in a bit of a foul mood - hoping to get my mind off the issue that soured my mood. Yeah, terrible idea. That day, I was starting a new project, which involved opening the pressure-fit caseback. Like complete idiot, I used a handheld case opener and applied _way_ too much force. The hairspring was an immediate casualty. It was _very_ hard to find a replacement, but I eventually did, at substantial cost. I _really_ wish I would have known about this technique. I’m pretty sure I could have saved the original if I had known how to reverse the, ahem, changes. ;) Anyway, thanks for taking the time to show us the manipulations and explain the operations you took. Much appreciated.

Get a room.

@@winstonchurchill3597 🤣

😂👍

Well said!

Thank you! Cheers!

Thanks! No, you don't oil the pallet fork nor the impulse pin.

It might indeed be the reason, but mostly damage to the hairspring from an attempted collect adjujstment would be at the inner end where the hairspring is colleted. But I really don't have a good explanation for exactly what happened...

It's veerrrry easy indeed.... And yes, I know from experience 😉

Let me put it this way, Gordon; it has taken a few destroyed hairsprings to get to a point where I can salvage one 😉 Hence the warning :)

Thank you very much!

I can definitely see both sides in this discussion. My comment would be that it is possible to find extremely inexpensive, working movements. For example, I bought a bag - yes a bag - of 10 unserviced but otherwise working Soviet watch movements for roughly 35 USD. If I am honest, I will reveal that I inadvertently destroyed the first one. However, after that, I started having successes and I could see real progress in both my techniques and results as I worked on the same basic structures again and again. As an aside, I later purchased a bag of 60 movements for about a _dollar_ apiece. In this case, I have no interest in bringing them fully back to life. Instead, I thought it would be cool to make a large, wall clock where the minute markers are, themselves, timepieces.

@@a1nelson I started in this when I was still in high school. I am self-taught through a correspondence course that didn’t have any grading. I got a box of (never counted them) mostly broken movements from watches that were quartz-converted back when that was something people did, for, iirc $10. I threw out dozens, I think the total may have been over a hundred. I later got to work on some of the ones that worked badly, and got them to work better, and eventually, well. I had a little business going where I would buy broken watches that were worth decent amounts working, but next to nothing broken. I often found them in jewelers junk drawers for under $5 a piece. Then I would service them (fairly poorly, I will admit) to the point where they could keep time to within a minute or so a day reliably, and sold them as working and keeping time, but I never claimed them to be ‘recently serviced’ because I didn’t think my work was good enough (nor were my tools) to justify that contention. In those days a lot of watches that are worth serious money now were worth practically nothing. When the market started changing to where they were more valuable, originality was very highly valued, and people expected a guarantee of accuracy, I decided my hands weren’t good enough for that kind of work. Also I had (who am I kidding, I HAVE) a hoarding problem where I would end up keeping too many things I was supposed to be making a profit on. I think my way makes it easier for the weak to try and not get so discouraged when they turn a barely working watch into something with a hairspring like this Bucherer because they just don’t have the skills to use the tools yet. Its really discouraging to know that you broke something, rather than screwed up on something that was broken anyway. Just my point of view. As Stian is fond of saying, there is more than one way to skin a cat.

I just started off with two inexpensive ( 10€ each ) , identical , new chinese pocket watches. Movements are 2650s,just three hands , manual wind. I did manage to disassemble , clean and get them together again. Guess i was lucky . But its not as easy as it seems to be in all these videos :- ) Especially the shock springs became my arch enemies when they came off :-) . Beeing short sighted definitely helps a lot, i could handle most parts without having to use a loop. There are some great channels on YT for this hobby - Chronoglide, Alex - its about time - Marshal - wristwatch Revival and of course this one are my favourites.

Just glasses and loupe 😎😁

Thank you so much 😀

That's very cool to hear, Fred! Enjoy your new adventures :)

Very cool! There are apparently about twice as many descendants of Norwegians in the US than there are people in Norway 😁

I appreciate that! Stian 😉

Being famous for jewelry does not make them famous for watches 😉

@@VintageWatchServices but they've always retailed clocks and watches and are famous for doing so.

@@UglowD Sure, and I might be wrong in saying most people probably don't know about their watches, but that's the feeling I get.

Me too 😊 But it's never too late!

Very nice, thanks for sharing, Shane!

😂👍

Thanks Ian! Not easy for me either :)

Wow, veldig artig å høre :)

😁👍

Glad you enjoyed it, Scott!

😂

Hello Woody, good to see you again! I didn't reveal my next business venture yet but it's getting very close now :) I hope to have some news before Christmas 😉

They make some very nice watches 👍

Love that!

Thanks for watching, John!