Saving a watch from a good shellacking - Universal Geneve (UN) Polerouter 215-2 Servicing
This is a follow-on to my previous post. Here we see the hairspring remedied and the serviced movement with the cleaned, manipulated, and repaired hairspring. The movement is a Universal Geneva Polerouter microroter 215-2 I serviced for a customer. A later post will show the fully serviced complete watch. It is very difficult to thoroughly remove adhered shellac from a hairspring as you need to apply a variety of chemicals and you must be nose-down in the chemicals and hairspring with ultra fine tools to dislodge the shellac. Chemicals alone are often inadequate. Remember a hairspring is almost as thin and more fragile than a human hair. Learning to manipulate a wide range of hairsprings takes years of practice and you operate at the limits of human dexterity and eyesight. Many watchmakers will not perform this type of repair and return the watch to you as unrepairable. I also note some of them are quite adept at damaging or ruining your hairspring. This watch is now being tested and it’s exceeding original factory timing at 300+ amplitude, low beat error, and highly accurate across all positions. The time required to do this type of repair makes the work grossly unprofitable but it can be satisfying to have a happy customer and a beautiful vintage watch running at top performance once again.