Project Watch version 2.0

So, I recently began the process of going through the TZ Watch School's 2nd and final level (there was supposed to be a level 3 but it never happened).



This time the movement is an auto-wind with day and date functions, both quick change. So, definitely step up from the manual wind time only watches I have worked on so far.

Here is a view of the ETA 2836-2 from the day/date side:



And here is a view while I was preparing to take the auto-wind rotor and gears off:



One thing we did here that we didn't in the last course was take the mainspring out of the barrel. I followed the instructions (including those that warned you should wear eye protection) and managed to get the mainspring out of the barrel, but in a rather "rapid" fashion......it basically flew apart.

So, after cleaning all the movment parts, it was time today to sit down and start the reassembly of the movement. The first item to tackle was putting the mainspring back in the barrel. Since I had such difficulties controlling things when I took it apart, I was not looking forward to trying to fit this spring back in the rather small barrel (not small by watch standards, but just generally a lot to fit into a small space).

Here is the barrel with the cap removed, the spring out and lying on the bench, and the arbour removed:



The spring is obvious, and the barrel and cover are on either side of the spring, and the arbour is the small dot in the upper portion of the photo. Note the tail on the end of the spring - it gets wound under the first coil to provide force to the barrel for the braking/ratcheting function.

After adding some grease to the barrel inside diameter for braking, I started inserting the spring back in.....since I don't have a mainspring winder (a crank mechanism that winds it up) I fed in in by hand. It was more difficult than I imagined!

First I had to get that tail in, and bend the spring back against in natural curve, and keep it in the barrel. After a couple of attempts I managed to get a couple of coils in, and the snapped this picture:



Shortly after that, I let up on the pressure just a smidge, and the spring let loose again, and the barrel went flying! Arrrrgh!

So, back to get it started again (after I found it - it flew across the room, went through a fern, hit a chair, and then bounced back - total travel was at least 30 feet!). This time I held on a bit more tightly, and when I had a bit more spring in, I snapped another shot:



So, kept winding, all the time putting pressure on it to keep the spring inside the barrel - getting close now:



And finally, success!



Then to put the arbour in, and rotate it carefully so it "catches" a notch in the spring, and it's ready for some oil:



After oiling the inside of the spring, I placed the cap on, and it's complete!



All this took me close to an hour! My hands were cramping from holding that little bugger in the barrel. Soon I will be putting the whole movement back together, so I'll update you as I get closer to the end.

Thanks for reading.