Watch Tools & Parts

Part of the brilliance of the rich history of pocket watches and timepieces stems from the delicacy of the mechanisms incorporated into their designs. The one disadvantage of this delicacy is that even the most masterful design will, after significant years of ticking, need to be serviced.

As old watch works are slowly declining or have ceased production, sometimes finding the parts or tools needed to revive your timepiece prove more elusive than you would hope. While you hunt for that new mainspring or watch face, take heart that numerous watch parts and tools are still accessible for the antique and vintage watch enthusiast, allowing your icon of history to keep ticking well into the future.

Quick Facts

• The mainspring, an essential mechanism that paved the way for the portable clock, was not developed until 1410
• Mechanical watches dominated the market for close to 500 years, from their creation at the end of the 15th century to the 1970s, with the advent of the electronic watch
• Before Marie Antoinette's death, a member of the Queen's Guard ordered her a spectacular Breguet watch that employed every finessed movement and possible complication. After being stolen in the 1980s, the watch reappeared two and half decades later at the Baselworld exhibition