Broken Mainspring Question
 

I have an old meters first 5513 Submariner. My job is a bit hard on watches, so it only gets worn on weekends. Friday afternoon I woke up from a nap and found that my watch had stopped. I got in the car and drove straight to the AD. They took it and said they'd call in a few days. Today they called and said the mainspring was broken, but everything else was fine.

In January 2010 my watch was serviced by this AD. They give a one year warranty on parts and labor, so the warranty expired 8 months ago. I didn't ask if it was included in the service, but after reading up on this site today it looks like replacing the mainspring is pretty standard in services (especially at an AD).

So my question is: Why did my mainspring break?

The woman I spoke to on the phone suggested it might be from shaking the watch instead of winding the crown to start it from a stop. Since I don't wear the watch every day, I wind it once a week (not shake it). Should I buy a watch winder to keep the watch constantly running, or is there something else going on here that I'm missing?

I heard somewhere that when Rolex does a full service, they automatically replace the mainspring whether it needs it or not. The reason being they discovered that mainsprings left in a watch that was overhauled are about 30% more likely to break. If true, perhaps in 2010 they left the old MS in and it broke, as Rolex found they do after a svc if not replaced.

Mainsrings do break but if serviced by a AD you should have a two year warranty.Mainsprings are not expencive you dont need a winder I would take it up with the AD who serviced your watch.And I would doubt that gently shaking your watch would ever break the mainspring.

Thanks for the replies. I'm definitely going to talk to the AD about whether or not they replaced the mainspring when they serviced it.

As far as the warranty goes, theirs is one year. I don't know if it's supposed to be two. Everything I know I learned on this site, so maybe I'll learn something else!

Mainsprings should always be replaced during a proper servicing. This spring plainly wasn't changed or was fitted incorrectly. The suggestion that "it might be from shaking the watch instead of winding the crown to start it from a stop" is nonsense and good cause for doubting the integrity of your dealer.

To my surprise, the AD called and said the watch was ready to be picked up. That's just four days after they called to let me know that the watch stopped running due to a broken mainspring. I'm not complaining that the work was performed so quickly, but I thought that it took a fair amount of time to make sure the watch was calibrated properly.

Also, I asked about the one year warranty on parts and labor and was told by the salesperson that even if they sent the watch to Rolex it would be one year and not two. Only new watches came with a two year warranty. I wasn't there to argue about their company policy so I paid the $95 and left.

The whole experience left me kind of perplexed.:thinking: