Like most other basic mechanisms, metal springs have been around since the Bronze Age. Even metal and wood were used as structural components for flexible bows and military catapults. During the Renaissance, accurate clocks made precision springs a necessity for the first time. The fourteenth century saw the development of precise clocks that revolutionized celestial navigation. World exploration and conquest by European colonial powers continued to fuel the clockmakers' science and art. Firearms were another area that drove spring development.

The advent of the Industrial Revolution in the eighteenth century brought with it a need for large, accurate, and inexpensive springs. Whereas watchmakers often made springs by hand, springs were mass-produced from music wire or similar materials. Advanced manufacturing methods have made springs ubiquitous today. Computer-controlled wire and sheet metal bending machines allow for the fabrication of custom springs, which are clearly specialized machinery.

A spring is just an accumulator. It can store energy, but it cannot release the energy slowly. To achieve this function, it should rely on a "spring + large transmission ratio mechanism", which is commonly seen in mechanical watches. Springs have been used for a long time. Ancient bows and crossbows are two types of springs in a broad sense. The inventor of the spring should strictly be the British scientist Robert Hooke. Although helical compression springs had already appeared and were widely used at that time, Hooke proposed the "Hooke's Law" - the elongation of the spring is proportional to the magnitude of the force it receives. It is based on this principle that the spring balance using helical compression springs was introduced in 1776.

Soon, Hooke himself invented a spring made according to this principle for use in clocks. Only springs that conform to "Hooke's Law" are real springs. The disc spring was invented by the Frenchman Belleville. It is a washer-type spring with a truncated cone cross-section made of metal sheets or forged blanks. After the emergence of modern industry, in addition to disc springs, new types of springs such as gas springs, rubber springs, scroll springs, die springs, stainless steel springs, air springs, and memory alloy springs have also appeared.