Do You Need to Change the Mainspring with Every Service?

When you’re servicing a watch, you have two choices. Clean and reuse the old mainspring or fit a new one.

In this article, I’ll explore both options and explain why I believe that replacing the mainspring is best practice.

Pros

• You don’t need tools like mainspring winders because you can fit the new mainspring. This will save you a substantial amount of money because these tools are expensive.
• There’s no risk of the old mainspring breaking after a while, so you avoid having to repair the watch and service it again.
• New mainsprings are much higher quality than the older ones, so the performance of your watch will likely improve.
• It saves you time because you don’t have to clean, lubricate, and fit the old mainspring.

Cons

• Mainsprings need to have specific dimensions, and the mainspring you need might not be available anymore.
• Every time you service a movement, you need to buy a new mainspring as well, and that adds up.
• A very picky collector might feel that the watch loses some of its originality if you change the mainspring.

As you see, it saves you time and money if you fit a new mainspring during a service. A new mainspring will cost you as well, but a good set of winders is at least $600. You can buy a lot of mainsprings for that.

Also, if you decide to reuse the old one and it breaks after one or two years, you’ll have to fit a new mainspring anyway and service it again. In the end, this would be more expensive than installing a new one in the first place.

Parts like the mainspring and the crystal, for example, are considered to be standard wear parts unless your watch has a very rare signed crystal, of course.

I’m a very picky collector myself, and I don’t mind a new mainspring at all. Sometimes it’s tough to tell whether parts have been replaced in the first place. Perhaps it’s already the 4th mainspring, who knows.

All in all

It’s the standard operating procedure of service centers to change the mainspring during every service. Unless you can’t find a new mainspring with the correct dimension, I suggest you do the same.

The mainspring is the power unit for your watch. Without it, it doesn’t run. Don’t try to save 10 to 20 USD every five years or so during a service because it’s not worth it.

Do you change the mainspring during every service? Let me know in the comments below.