Wiktionary
n. A spring in a mechanical clock.
Wikipedia
Clocksprings generally consist of a flat multicore cable wound in a spiral shape similar to a clock spring, hence the name, but the name is also given to devices fulfilling the same purpose but which use spring-loaded brushes contacting concentric slip rings.
Usage examples of "clockspring".
He sat his saddle as tense as an over-wound clockspring and watched the forest around them grimly, as though he expected Shaido to leap out from behind the nearest tree.
In the endless heartbeat before that, he was a silent demon of entropy who waited to unwind the clockspring of Fowler's universe, the better to celebrate its last anechoic tick.
But above both fear and sensible thoughts was a vast red rage that made him want to leap across the table and choke this tick‑tuck man until clocksprings fell out of his ears.
She soon realized that, beneath their calm surfaces, hour by hour they wound tighter and tighter, like clocksprings being forced to the breaking point.
Star charts, drawn from legend, and etchings of galaxies that unwound like clocksprings, filled the otherwise cold and gleaming, featureless walls.