Mainspring Tension Anxiety Support Group Reports Record Attendance

The Swiss Mainspring Tension Anxiety Support Group, a monthly gathering for watchmakers and collectors who experience persistent worry about the stress loads endured by their watch mainsprings, reported record attendance at its January meeting, with 47 participants -- up from its founding membership of 8 in 2023. 'It started as a joke,' said founder and practicing horologist Werner Federzug. 'I mentioned to a colleague that I sometimes lie awake thinking about the torsional stress on my Lange's mainspring and he said, Me too. Then we told another colleague and he started crying. There was clearly a need.' The group meets in a rented community room in Biel, Switzerland, and follows a structured format: members introduce themselves, state the watch they are most concerned about, and describe the nature of their anxiety. Common concerns include overwinding damage, long-term fatigue in alloy mainsprings, and what one member called 'the existential burden of knowing my power reserve is at 30 percent and I haven't picked the watch up since Thursday.' 'My Patek perpetual calendar has been running continuously for eleven years,' said a member who identified himself only as Markus. 'That's eleven years of constant spring tension. Every time I think about it, my chest tightens. Which is ironic, because that's essentially what the mainspring is doing.' A clinical psychologist who advises the group, Dr. Elise Brandt, noted that mainspring anxiety is a form of displacement. 'These individuals are projecting general anxiety onto a mechanical system they deeply care about,' she said. 'The mainspring becomes a metaphor for internal tension. Treating the metaphor treats the person.' Treatment approaches discussed at the meeting include mindfulness exercises ('be present with your spring'), cognitive reframing ('the mainspring was designed for this'), and what Federzug calls 'the let-it-run-down method,' in which members deliberately allow a watch to stop and observe that the mainspring survives. 'Three members couldn't do it,' Federzug reported. 'They picked up the watch and wound it before it stopped. We'll try again next month.'