# Balance Springectomy.



## ValvesRule (May 20, 2009)

I thought, for anyone who is interested, that I would report on an experement I did to see what would happen to a badly worn Verge Watch if I removed the Balance Spring.

The Watch is an 1814 William Brown pair case Verge FusÃ©e which I had bought on E. bay and reassembled after a previous owner had apparently given up on a repair attempt. Its original Mainspring had broken, so I had adapted a modern one which is not quite powerful enough.

The Escapement does not miss any Crown Wheel teeth, however they and the Pallets are so worn that the Balance makes little more than 5 degrees peak-to-peak.

The Watch gains about 5 hours per day, and I had speculated that removing the Balance Spring might improve this rate by allowing the Balance to make longer, slower vibrations.

The effects of removing the Balance Spring were as follows;

Longer, slower vibations did result in positions Face Up and Face Down - in fact the Watch ran very slow, a little faster than 1 B.P.S. The Balance made about 120Âº pk-pk, however this seemed not to be constant, as I occasionally heared it strike the Banking Pins.

In any other position, the Watch went at between 8 and 12 B.P.S. with an amplitude varying between less than 1Âº and 5Âº.

For the experement, I only wound the Mainspring three or four clicks. I suspect that if I had wound it fully, the Escapement would not have survived.


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## harryblakes7 (Oct 1, 2010)

Interesting.....although VERY early Verge watches did not have a balance spring, 17th Century ones, all in museums now...


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