Hmm, this is unusual, there's not a lot that can go wrong with a spring bar, unless it's too short, or it becomes bent somehow, but thanks for the headsup.
A spring bar just failed on me. Luckily, I was only desk diving so it didn't fall off so all is good, but take heed and check your bars!
Hmm, this is unusual, there's not a lot that can go wrong with a spring bar, unless it's too short, or it becomes bent somehow, but thanks for the headsup.
That would have been my takeon it too, but one end of the spring literally broke off in the "case" so it fell out.
Maybe you were straining your wrists too much?
While I think all the various types of springbars can by their nature fail in use from one reason or another, I do think that the most reliable ones are the completely shoulderless type that require either drilled case lugs and a toothpick or the like to poke them out, or else a good set of small diagonal cutters you're willing to ruin by cutting through the thinner steel of the bars' springbarrels to remove them.
For myself personally, I've come to prefer the simpler, sturdier, and more reliable mil-spec type fixed lugbars and am willing to live with both the more limited choice in usable straps and the possible necessity to have the "break away" safety factor built into the strapping (i.e. the springbars[!] of the buckles thereof) as opposed to the lugbars themselves. I also still understand that fixed lugbars aren't going to be everybody's optimum choice
I've also often heard many others say that the modern types of screwbars like those used for the TF Dreadnought and others, as long as the threaded end-caps are secured with removable "Blue" Loctite or something like women's clear nail polish (I've used it in the past on motorcycle nuts and screws and it works great), can be the best-of-both-worlds alternative in comparison to springbars and fixed lugbars
In case anybody's interested, some of the problems springbars can be err to were discussed and argued in an earlier thread here http://forum.tz-uk.com/showthread.ph...ky-spring-bars
This is just a theory, but if these were your '80s vintage watch's original springbars and 30 or more years in use, and given that it is the slightly swaged down ends of the bar's hollow springbarrel that keep the endpins captive in the springbarrel, then maybe the swaging just finally open up enough from wear to allow the endpin in question to pop out of the springbarrel from the side pressure of the "tap" if the springbarrel had somehow pulled back away from the case lug enough to allow the clearance for that to occur
I've had a proper look at the lugs and they seem clean and undistorted. The bar itself though was in two pieces - one end with the spring bar still intact, and the other missing the springy bit. Both of the ends of the bar itself were a little rounded but the actual springy bit had broken away from the bar, and the "spring" had been lost from the broken off bit.
^ What you describe sounds to me like it would comport exactly with the theory above, but I don't know for certain on that