Waltham "1877" calibre

[Tickie]

Hello,
Can anyone tell me if the 1877 calibre waltham had a breguet balance spring fitted to it originally?
I have looked in the data base and it tell me that the watch was made in 1882. (Serial N° 1741948).

The way the regulator pins and the balance spring are seems to me to indicate it was originally fitted with a Breguet, but some body has put a flat spring in instead.

[Tom McIntyre]

The 1877 model was developed with a flat hairspring in all grades. Some of the late Appleton Tracy & Co. grade were fitted with Breguet hairsprings in the mid 80's.

Here are a pair of them from each group.

[Tickie]

Thanks Mr McIntyre for your reply,
I have one of the early ones, no jewels, and to get the balance spring to sit between the pins, I must shape the balance spring into a bowl! Otherwise it misses the pins entirely! The pins barely come below the bottom of the cock, and for a flat hairspring this is rather scary:o

I did once come across a balance spring that had the last 1/2 of the last coil raised. It was NOT a Breguet, just the last 1/2 turn was raised. I never could find out if it was a one off by a watchmaker or not but I suspect it was.

[Tom McIntyre]

Is the regulator curved like the first example I showed? If so, either the regulator pins are too short, or hairspring is colleted too low, which probably means the balance is not correct, etc.

[Tickie]

The regulator is exactly like the first example. The reglator pins are to short but they do not appear to have been shortened. This is what threw me. I would have to bring the balance spring up to the base of the cock to get it flat