Watch Maintenance

Wibbs wrote: »

If it's a manual wind up mechanical watch and not an automatic(mostly powered by wrist movement) then I just wind them first thing in the morning when I put one on. If you're wearing an automatic on a daily basis the previous days power reserve should keep it going so no need to wind up. I suspect your Breitling is an automatic as hand winding watches tend to be in the minority these days.

If you do hand wind a watch and if you don't wear an automatic regularly, always wind and set a watch off your wrist(same for changing date). Winding while wearing can put too much strain on the winding mechanism and lead to more wear.

I'd not worry about polishing really. An occasional wipe with a cloth should be fine.

On water resistance; I personally wouldn't wear a watch in the shower for example. Seals can deteriorate over time and hot water is apparently more likely to seep in. I'm not so sure about that, but better to be safe. Other things? Avoid leaving your watch near strong magnets like found in loudspeakers.

Mechanical watches need a service by a watchmaker to replace the various oils in the jewel bearings. The frequency of service is a bit of a debate. Manufacturers tend to suggest frequent services(for which they charge handsomely). Personally I reckon a service is needed when the watch's accuracy changes, it becomes stiffer to wind, doesn't keep its power reserve. For a water resistant watch that you might wear swimming or whatever I'd look to get the seals replaced every say two years, if actually diving, yearly. If you ever see condensation on the inside of the glass stick the watch in a bag of rice and get it to a watch maker as soon as possible as damp and rust can kill a movement very quickly.

I'm sure other folks will have more and better advice.

ecoli3136 wrote: »

I will only add my own experience with a vintage watch, which is a Certina Water King from the 1960's (my Grandfather's watch, given to him on retirement).

From the serial number it seems to have been made in 1969 and has the Certina Cal. 25-651 movement (an automatic movement vs mechanical). That movement gets a lot of kudos and deservedly so. Completely in house, 28 Jewels, 19,800 bph. The later iteration which is in my Grandad's watch has a sort of anti-shock mounting which was also pretty advanced for the time, but I digress.

Anyway, when I inherited it on the death of my Dad I eventually did get around to think about having it serviced, thinking about the oils especially and the likelihood of them being pretty badly deteriorated, but it was keeping absolutely perfect time. I am as sure as I can be that it has never been opened.

The advice given to me from a couple of sources was to leave well enough alone and that doing anything to it was as likely to put things awry.

I have approached servicing of my other watches (I don't have any other vintage watches) on the basis that they are serviced as the need arises, i.e. when I notice them going out of spec for the watch. I'm going to take the same attitude to this one, so as long as it keeps humming along as it does now, it's not getting anything done to it.

Just in relation to water resistance, I totally agree that you need to change the seals at least every couple of years to have any confidence if submerging the watch. Given that my service intervals are longer I don't wear anything other than a G Shock when swimming, and I've stopped wearing even them in the shower - primarily to avoid build up of residue from soap though, which really does accumulate on rubber/resin straps/cases.