What happened to the hairspring in this watch? 😩
Вставка
- Опубліковано 10 лют 2025
- Today we have Thomas' watch on the bench, a vintage Bucherer from the 1960s that does not run. It's a simple three-handed watch with no complications, so this should not be too difficult. Or at least that's what I thought...
Join me for a full service of this lovely old dress watch and a discussion of Bucherer as a brand. We'll touch on John Wick and a few other off topic things as always!
See our watches and read our blog at www.vintagewatc...
See our current selection at Chrono24: bit.ly/32MJI4W
Tools and resources for watchmaking as a hobby:
bit.ly/43yQRmw Watchmaking books
bit.ly/3N3rlz3 Watchmaker’s loupe
bit.ly/43vOcu4 Watchmaker tweezers
bit.ly/3Nm0lfc Moebius lubricants
bit.ly/43ITWjM Screwdrivers
bit.ly/468B8wq Case opener
bit.ly/468Bfbk Rodico
bit.ly/3J8mX0u Polywatch
bit.ly/42wAZQf Presto tools
bit.ly/3J6UND7 Bergeon tools
bit.ly/3X21iwL Horotec tools
bit.ly/3X2xiAU Chinese made watchmaking tools
bit.ly/3qFqgWk Digital microscope
bit.ly/3CkZt4f Ultrasonic cleaner
bit.ly/3qAAPtX Ultrasonic cleaning solution
bit.ly/43V9HEr Denture cleaning tablet
bit.ly/3X1rpUl Chinese “Horia style” jeweling tool
bit.ly/3P5EQR7 Demagnetizer
Follow us on social media
/ vintage_watch_services
/ vintagewatchservices
/ vintagewatchsrv
www.pinterest.... #watchmaking #vintagewatches #watchrepair #watchrestoration
6:08 -EXACTLY what my wife said while I was watching this video!!!
I answered:
“He’s the guy I bought the Seamaster from! “
“Aaahhh!…nice watch! Doesn’t he also sell ladies watches?!”
Sooo…I ask ( for the peace to be maintained in this humble household):
“Do you? “
Btw.: Amazing proof of skill, yet again! And the humor! Dryer than the oil in an never serviced Patek reference 96 !
I love my Bucherer. This was a fun watch to watch.
My wife is fine with me watching your videos. It keeps me out of the bars.
Honestly, that manipulation of the hairspring was amazing. For a moment I thought you might try for perfection, but you opted for absolutely good enough. Sensible.
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.
This dude is one hell of the watch repairman, a one hell of the youtuber, probably one hell of the father/husband and one hell of a dude.
Get a room.
@@winstonchurchill3597 🤣
Thanks for the demonstration of hairspring manipulation. You don't see that on other YT channels. Most just get it replaced. It was masterful and I learned a lot.
These older watches are so much more elegant than what is being put out today.
Wow! Nice Repair!
In 1977, my parents were running a teen tour in Europe, and when they were in Lucerne they worked out an arrangement wherein they got a kickback for what kids spent in the Bucherer store in the form of store credit. My mom bought a smallish gold watch with a few diamonds on it, my father got a slightly larger tank-style integrated automatic watch in 18k gold, I think the total cost to them was like $500 or something like that, on a total list price of $2700 or something like that. I have the papers somewhere. Anyway, I inherited my dads, and its a nice watch, although his huge wrists mean its too big for me.
I messed *once* with a hairspring, a bigger one from a derelict pocket watch I bought for training. I learned a very valuable lesson: *do not mess with hairsprings!*
Unless of course you have the skills that you have!
The timegrapher shows that you have reshaped that thing as good as new... that's unbelievable. Bravo!
Nice Panda finger cotts! Got to love a simple ETA movement. Nice hairspring repair.
No way! That hairspring manipulation was just another level of mastery. That’s just another of many times you proved most humans would never be equipped to be watchmakers. Love your work!
Excellent video again. Yeah, we don't want to take John Wicker's watch. We all saw what he did over the dog. And the car. lol I always enjoy the history lesson.
the repair on the spring suggests this watchmaker is on another level
Once again I learned so much. Really like the narration/info too Stian.
Thank you for posting!!!
As a watchmaking student, just now being introduced to hairspring manipulation, this video was (like all of your videos) such an amazing watch! This one was special though!
Nerds has created this worlds most useful and most interesting things. And in many cases the most beautiful things as well.
We are all nerds in arms here 😁
Well said!
Thanks sir , your videos are informative like always best youtube channel for bed time
Watch repair AND Hoobastank? We get it all in one channel here. Thank you, Sir.
Very nice!! Fascinating correction of that hairspring. My ham hands would have crushed that thing!! Wonderful craftsmanship!
Thanks again for letting us watch you work. I always learn as you work. The hairspring work was amazing.
my fav type of watch simple but beautiful to see on the wrist great workmanship on the hair spring great video again keep them coming thank you Stian
Thank you very much!
Wow. I really had thought that this balance hairspring was irreparable!
Another great video thanks
I have watched many watchmaker on UA-cam but you are amazing. I enjoy watching your videos and always learn something. You fixing the hairspring was like a magician. Thanks for the video.
Another wonderful restoration. I especially enjoyed how you fixed the hairspring. I’d love to see a workshop and tool video showing off your workspace. Keep ‘em coming. I for one look forward to your videos.
This is one of my favorite watchmaking channels!! and because of the great content I started the hobby of watchmaking. Not cheap at all but definitely worth it. Iv always been into cars, but I never had a lot of room and I don’t have up to 50-100k to rebuild a car like I wanted. This hobby is far enjoyable
There are not enough words to express how amazingly skilled and impressed I am with the Bucherer watch repair/restoration and in particular the hairspring correction. Vintage Watch Services displays an incredible watch dismantling and remounting competence never seen demonstrated before. It's truly exception to watch, no pun intended.
Great job with the hairspring! I had no idea they could be resurrected like that. I loved your comments about taking up watch repair later in life, I am 82 and had just started a few months back, I became fascinated by the intricacies and miniature aspect of watches, they are indeed an engineering marvel - as an ex engineer myself (fitter and turner, ship's engines and other heavy machinery) I appreciate the design and workmanship. Lovely watch, it looks tremendous!👍😎🇦🇺
That's very cool to hear, Fred! Enjoy your new adventures :)
Great to see the fix
Great video Stian, I really enjoyed it, especially watching you straighten out the hairspring. You made it look so easy and quick that I doubt anyone believed your warnings on how difficult it is to “adjust” hairsprings.
Thanks for the show ;-).
Lovely work Stian. Not an easy repair with that bloody hairspring!!
Multiple horses went nuts every time you said the mfg's name :)
😂👍
you is lucky to be young and have the know how...am 72 and started last year...but with big know how on engineering , this helps , but can't engage big investment on tooling , so I make most my tools :)) , your video's are off a quality " exceptional" , your english and spirit " great" , and I love the respect of old things made with the highest possible precision of the time , tic , tic no tic toc and not speaking of dials...dials , the most special , but not needed for time keeping ..like some Jurassian am waiting for winter to go back on my Landeron and finish the refurbishing , including a check of the not good beat error and probable issu with the anchor not good .thank you sir !
Good hairspring work. Thanks for sharing, Stian.
The hair spring repair is amazing. You are doing paint-less dent removal on a microscope scale. Just amazing that you are so skilled to get that mangled spring looking like new.
The explanation of where to start fixing the hairspring is much appreciated. I haven't seen other channels posting these details. I was wondering: do you have to lubricate the actual fork of the pallet fork, so the end of the lever hitting the jewel underneath the balance?
Thanks! No, you don't oil the pallet fork nor the impulse pin.
Lovely Stian! Nice to see the hairspring fix and beat error adjust!
They made really cool enameled silver watch pendants too.
Nice job manipulating the hairspring! Nice macro photography also! I DETEST: 1) working on hairsprings and 2) setting impulse jewels. Love pretty much everything else about working on watches and clocks although I forgot to mention I DETEST cuckoo clocks!!! So aptly named ;-). I wish I would have had access to WOSTEP or similar training 21 yrs ago when I started. Unfortunately, the "powers that be" (NAWCC I'm talking about you) obviously think people living in the Southern US are too stupid to work on watches since training is rarely offered there. I had to learn by buying and breaking many pocket watches to figure things out. You're right, there aren't usually any "extra" parts in a watch. And I've come to the determination that the better quality the watch the easier it is to work on. I always look forward to your videos.
Amazing work on that hairspring, and very interesting how one determines where to manipulate it.
Thank you! Cheers!
It's amazing how quickly time passes watching your posts, so relaxing to watch.
Nice work
On a trip to Switzerland several years ago I visited the Bucherer building in Lucerne. I looked at a whole lot of watches, some of which were more expensive than my house, and then found a really nice watch shop, which doesn't appear to be open any more, (Moser Uhren Bijouterie), and bought a Swiss Military by Chrono watch for a much more affordable memento of my time in Switzerland. Anyway, this is a lovely little service and a vintage Bucherer to be proud of.
Alright, Stian, so there you were telling us not to mess with a hair spring whilst fixing a hair spring. So is this a case of "Do as I say not as I do"? 😀 I was much impressed, however, like most people here.
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 :)
Just glasses and loupe? Guess nothing else, right? I'll take that! 😋😂 Cheers Stian, be well mate.
Just glasses and loupe 😎😁
Great video. Enjoy your resto projects. Your talent truly shows when you can straighten out a hairspring. Nice recovery there.
I did see "incablock" stamped on the caseback.
Nice video as always. Btw, at 8:05 "hair spring" should be "main spring" of course.
Stian: manipulate at a point 90 degrees distant from the point of greatest displacement UNLESS there's multiple planes, in which case multiply that by two. Sounds simple.
Me: No it doesn't! 😂
Theo I look for your videos as you do an excellent job of showing and explaining the intricacies of watchmaking
I appreciate that! Stian 😉
... Another great restoration and service. Not so simple job....- Fantastic work on the balance..quite interesting . Also notice on many vids that when oiling the pallet fork stone faces, that the faces barely touch the teeth of the escape wheel..!! Love the comment... 'Swiss playdough' .. Funny..! .I wish that was my watch. Great looking, simple elegance... Love it. Thanks Stian..
Very impressed at how well you corrected the beat error. Nice.
Love the vids thanks!
*Good work.*
A lovely simple watch , albeit with a “complication” your patience and skill is admirable sir !! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻🧐
Thank you so much 😀
Bucherer is a top end Swiss Jeweler that had watches made for them. Carl F Bucherer was the founder and when the company decided to go into manufacturing, they called the watch company after the founder. Early CFBs used ETA.
I did enjoy this video, thanks. I enjoy all of your videos. pure heart surgery on this one for sure!
Stain, I am in awe with how you were able to restore the functionality of the hairspring. How much time did it take you? I see you're still wearing the Fitbit. Good on you. I bet you have less hand shake since you started exercising.
I own one of their watches. Purchased in Geneva from their retail store some 25-30 years ago. It is still a great time piece.
Sometimes simple is beautiful.
Thanks for the encouragement! I'm diving in 🙈 it's so very rewarding.
Hi. I’d love to listen to how you feel about watch winders.
THANKS,,,Great video
I love the relaxed tone of your presentations. I also really enjoy your Norse accent. My grandfather was from Olso, and my grandmother was from Farsund.
Very cool! There are apparently about twice as many descendants of Norwegians in the US than there are people in Norway 😁
I know I’m making two comments on this video but… I would like to say from my learning experience that one should NOT start, in my opinion on working watches. For me, at least, the hard part was learning how to manipulate tiny parts with tweezers and probes while looking through a loop, and I was glad to learn how to do that (and mangle, break, and lose in an inappropriately thick and lush carpet, parts) on junk movements I picked up for pennies a piece before I started to work on relatively expensive working movements. Now that being said, I agree that when you actually get to the part where you are looking for a working watch when you are done, yes, a previously working watch is a good idea. Tricycle is a junk movement, training wheels is a working one, and really riding is a broken one you get working.
Again, in my opinion. Some people may have a much easier time with that first part than I did.
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.
Thanks for another great video, Stian! I absolutely share your sentiment regarding getting started earlier in life with watch work. The satisfaction I get from my service/repair efforts is addictive - I actually sleep better because of it. Did you ever reveal your next business venture? Thanks again!!
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 😉
Wonderful video. Always a pleasure to see one of your videos. I've been checking out some of the newer CFB watches recently and have found a few reasonably priced models on various grey-market sites. I'm planning on reducing my collection then will likely add one soon.
They make some very nice watches 👍
Nice job on the hairspring! There's a long list of things I wouldn't feel comfortable attempting, but I think the hairspring is near the top. ;)
Another fascinating and informative video, music to any mechanical nerd such as I. As an instrument maker, I've repaired many violins, and they require a similar level of attention and understanding, but in a vastly different way. It's always great to see other craftsmen at work on something I know very little about.
Thanks and cheers from cloudy Vienna, Scott
Glad you enjoyed it, Scott!
Hei fra Norge! Your videos have helped me so much in starting my journey as a hobbyist watch maker. Serviced my first Chronograph last week, a Venus 175 and it went perfectly fine using one of your videos as a reference. Thanks for that!
Wow, veldig artig å høre :)
Great work with the hairspring and I probably have something loose in the upper part, but hairspring work is meditative. Really enjoy working on them :)
Forgot to add to my comment below....another excellent video with great camera work and narration. Nice fix on the balance wheel spring!
Great job! Painful to watch the hairspring manipulation since I just spent 1.5 hours working on one. Finally got it right only to hear a loud knocking after re-installing the balance assembly... tip of the balance staff had a slight bend... ugh I always forget to check those first so I don't waste time on other repairs.
Very impressive seeing you get that hairspring and balance working acceptably. I could never do such adjustments, my hands are way too shaky!
btw, the Seagull watch is running well and is pretty accurate, just a bit fast. Thanks again!
the adjustment of the hairspring collet is more than likely how it got damaged in the first place, amazing work at the end of some tweezers tbh
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...
Thanks again for another wonderful video!
Thank you for your in depth video, I learned a lot.
I love the look of this watch. I recently got a vintage seiko skyliner ref.14092 from the early to mid 60s and the overall aesthetic is the same haha. Amazing work. Love these videos !!!
I'm envious with how quickly you tamed that hairspring! I suspect it has to do with your manly nose hair? 🙂
I'm not sure, but there's for certain a non-zero chance my nose hair does contribute 😎
It is beautiful!!!
Most people, including me, can’t fully understand how gentle and minimalistic you have to manipulate that hairspring to get it back in shape. I can only imagine how easy it would be to screw that thing up.
It's veerrrry easy indeed.... And yes, I know from experience 😉
How do you find part numbers and where would you purchase them love you expertise Stian
You can for instance find it here: www.welwynwatches.co.uk/identifying-parts.html
The biggest market for watch parts is of course eBay, but you can also google the part you need and find lots of spare parts resellers.
Computer geek in Texas, love the engineering of the mechanical watch. Wish I had gotten into watches in my 20’s.
Me too 😊 But it's never too late!
Thank you Stian for another exceptional video and congratulations on daintily fixing the highly delicate balance spring despite your Scandinavian background. The watch itself has left me rather puzzled, though. Here in Zürich, Bucherer has been known for its rather costly fine jewellery, watches and some watches by expensive brands. They do not produce their own movements, but that is common with luxury brands. However, to see that this watch is only gold plated is really astonishing. If you produce such a watch for such a brand, it should have an 18k gold case.
Bucherer is one of the most famous jewellers in the world. How would most people not have heard of them?
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.
@@StaffordLaw-v2i Sure, and I might be wrong in saying most people probably don't know about their watches, but that's the feeling I get.
Pass times classified in the Kingdom of nerdom have always been interesting to me, so right there with you.
I’ve got a gold filled Bucherer automatic which I love. I always pronounced it Boosherer. Now I know!
Dad brought a Bucherer watch at the behest of my beloved aunt Amalia in the early 1980’s after a European vacation with my mom. My aunt had a little Omega gold watch. She couldn’t see the time at that moment. So the Bucherer was much larger. However, in Costa Rica was an unknown brand. My aunt was very upset…and my cousin received it instead! The watch is still running as my aunt’s Omega. However, she seldomly uses it anymore! In the late 1980’s I went to Switzerland to do an internship in Basel, and I asked the family that I stayed with about Bucherer! Then I realized that it was a prestigious Swiss watch manufacturer as well! I told my dad and he immediately summoned me to tell my aunt about it…
Great video! I too am dipping my toes in the water!
Love that!
I would love to see more vintage Bucherer watch videos! There are some nice ones for sale online and not a lot of info on them on UA-cam anyway. Peace
My mother did estate sales and once gave my wife a nice necklace that was actually a 'ball' with a watch inside it. It turns out that it's a Bucherer and while it runs, it needs a service. I considered taking a shot at it, but since half the watches that I work on never run again, I decided it's nice enough as a necklace 🙂
Very nice, thanks for sharing, Shane!
Manipulating that hair-spring back in shape like that was really impressive! I would have spent half a day...and made it twice as bad as when I started!
As always, you have made a poor neglected watch into a thing of beauty! In watching your videos I am intrigued by the fact that the older watches us a balance that has many small screws around it whereas other watches use a much simpler looking balance. I would be interested in hearing more detail about this design feature.
Thanks so much! Those are timing screws, used to poise the balance back when manufacturing techniques were less accurate than they are today.
It's safe to say that somebody really butchered that Bucherer :D
Hi Stian, your hairspring work was super hero stuff!. Would have been a nightmare for me, I am not good at hairsprings. I actually own a Bucherer, it's one of my favourites and a good time keeper. Well done on that beautiful watch. Adrian
Thanks, Adrian!
Flume used to publish books which contained data for a wide array of mechanical movements. They only published them in German, though...
Thanks for the video! Great content! The thing which you said about incabloc, does it count generally for all manufacturers? I have a Radar Chronograph with Landeron 248 and it has the incabloc written on the dial. I have no idea how old it is... I thought it is from the sixties and found literally nothing about the company "radar", in case you were wondering what it looks like I have sent you an email few weeks ago 🙂
Thanks for watching! Incabloc was a key selling point in the 1940s and 1950s but less so in the 1960s on. I'll check my mail for yours :)
Good restoration
Nerdy, not at all - Let's call it mirco-mechanical engineering, Stian. I'll certainly be watching more of your content after watching my first one of yours. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for watching, John!
I have those same Norwegian nose hair genes. I tried using one as a mainspring once, but it was too big and strong. Nowadays, I just try to trim each nostril to a different length, so when I breath I get that 2-note train whistle sound. It makes the dog howl.
😂