..in few words you are correct, I don't know a way to unwind the mainspring before dismounting the 1142 bridge, and if you open the click 425 with a well wound mainspring you also risk to damage the delicate stopclick 1428...so I wind down the mainspring only after having dismounted the 1142 bridge.

Best.

Gianluca

Hi Craig,
: Thanks for your kind words.

: About the unwinding of the mainspring, I tend to work on a watch
: when is already wound down, but even so the mainspring still has
: a small residual torque... so once the automatic gears train and
: the stopclick 1428 is removed, only the click 425 prevents the
: mainspring to be unwound, so if you open gently the click 425
: with a screwdriver with the left hand and simultaneously take
: the crown on the right hand (before removing the intermediate
: ratchet wheel 417) you will easily unwind the mainspring
: controlling the residual torque via the crown; instead, if you
: will already have removed the 417, opening the click 425 the
: ratchet wheel will unwind shortly but, being the mainspring
: already almost wound down, the ratchet wheel 415 will tipically
: do not more than half a turn (8 complete turns of the ratchet
: wheel corresponds to a fully wound mainspring).

: About the balance wheel, there is no specific reason to remove it
: at the end and your suggestion is correct...I know that some
: watchmakers don't even remove it (leaving the balance and the
: pallet fork in place during the cleaning phase), but I prefer to
: remove everything to better clean the pallet fork's pivot jewels
: as they will not receive any oil (so must be super clean to have
: a proper oscillation amplitude).

: Last but no least, there are two steps that I hate during a
: service, that are reinstalling the jewel cap into the Incabloc
: (happened to break a lyra spring and to reinstall a new one is
: necessary to remove completely the Incabloc assembly from the
: balance cock) and oiling the impulse plane of the exit stone of
: the pallet fork via the inspection holes of the mainplate
: (almost impossible to oil exactly the impulse faces without
: spreading the oil also on the top surface of the pallet stone,
: damn!).

: All my best.

: Gianluca

: Congratulations - this is a difficult task to take on, especially