It's happened again to me. I acquire a beautiful watch in great condition, except that it needs a mainspring, and there simply are no mainsprings available.

This time the watch is a lovely two-tone Touchon & Co. Gubelin PL. My watchmaker tells me that replacement mainsprings for it are unavailable. It needs a 0.58mm x 0.19 x about 18" (or Dension 0000 x 4 x 18").

I cannot bear to own disabled watches. So I end up selling these mainspringless watches, usually at a bad loss.

In this case, I would be able to scrap this 18k watch for about what I paid for it, but I cannot bear to do that to such a lovely thing.

Isn't there some source for the mainspring I need? Isn't there someone who can custom make mainsprings?

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Hey Ethan,
I am far from an expert,but I believe that a mainspring can be matched up with one for a different brand of watch. Most people,myself included that work on watches have a store of unmarked mainsprings,and when I get an unusual watch that needs a mainspring,I can usually find a spring in my stash that will work. You just have to find someone that will take the old one out and match it up,rather than just look it up in a book and declare it "not available". There are other watches I'm sure that use that same size and strength spring,and the ends can most of the time be modified to fit.

hi Ethan; I have probably thousands of mainsprings it would help to know if it is a cross brand spring , if there are other makes that take the same one, ,I will look to see if i have what you need later today and get back to you, regards,Tom

I think that most of these swiss Mains have the "flipped end" connecting to the barrel, so all we really neeed (usually) is the old spring.

I tried to help Ethan find the spring before telling him it likely would be impossible to find one and impractical to fabricate one. Unfortunately, the spring Ethan needs is not like any other you will normally see. If you check your collection you will find the smallest likely is 0.7mm and will only be 8” or so long, What Ethan needs is a 0.6mm spring of normal PW strength and length a very uncommon size. Even in the days when the watch was made, it would be a special order no doubt.

A spring of this size is about the thickness of a average sewing needle with same size eye/hole. Even if you ground down a larger spring, the hole end would have to be remade (being made in ratio for the larger spring) and perfect to hold up if it broke. The watch might not have a safety pinion, in which case a mainspring failure could total the watch for all intense purposes.

In addition, grinding down a beefier spring to the right dimensions would be a difficult task. If you think of the hours involved to get a close match, experiment with grinding or turning down, and having holes drilled/lasered, all without affecting the temper, the cost would be a considerable part of the watch if not exceed the value. I have a couple of suppliers in Europe to ask but hold out little hope.

Could it be rolled out from steel wire?

This, of course, is stating the obvious....

Let us all keep our eyes open for a parts watch...!

Regards,

Jerry

Thanks, all.