Keeping Your Watch Running Longer
You new watch is a vision of elegance and style the likes of which have not been seen since Avarice. Now that you got it you want to keep it. Besides locking it up every night to keep the kids from dropping it into a vat of pancake batter, there are some things you need to know about to take care of your investment right off the bat.
Your watch is like a small child. Okay, not really, but there are some things you will have to do if you want to keep your timepiece running the way it should be running. If you fail to do that your watch becomes nothing more than a time bomb. Okay, maybe it doesn’t but it is just a matter of time (no pun intended) before you watch breaks or becomes a piece of junk.
Water and heat are the two biggest problems associated with rust inside of your watch. Even if your watch is water-resistant, make sure you put your watch in a position where it does not have to resist anything. Water resistant is not the same as water proof. If water gets inside of your watch, it’s pretty much a given you will be down at the local watch-smith’s shop for a cleaning session.
If you expose your watch to saltwater, make sure to rinse it off and set it out to dry. Salt water is harder on a watch and can damage it more easily than fresh water. Avoid wearing your watch during any activity involving water or steam. Why anyone would wear their nice luxury time piece into a sauna is beyond me, so maybe you should show off somewhere else.
Here’s an odd tip, but it really does make sense; do not change the date on your watch within three hours of midnight. This has nothing to do with Gremlins who you are not supposed to feed after midnight, but with the gears inside the watch. The watch at this point is gearing up (get it?) to change the date internally during this time and you changing the date yourself interferes with this. Any other time is a fine time to change the date.
Wind your automatic watch by hand once or twice a week. This keeps the oils moving in the right direction. It is also important because it will keep the gears nice and slick. Non-slick flooring is great, non-slick gears will put you behind schedule.
Mechanical watches require the same thing more children do; consistency. It is a good idea to wind your watch every morning. The internal mechanism of the mechanical complexities makes it so that they need to be wound on a regular basis, but not a lot. The irony is that people who do not want to be late and are habitual watch winders (two or three times a day) tend to wear out their watches and then complain that their “piece of junk” will not work. If they had wound the watch just once in the morning they could have saved themselves a lot of hassle.
Regular maintenance is import. So like your annual physical and periodic dental trips, schedule some time for your watch to be examined by a professional. They will check your watch for rust and clean the gears. Usually every two years is a great idea in regards to getting a check up for your watch. Got it? Happy time keeping!
Zeeman Haus enjoys writing articles online on a variety of subjects. You can check out his latest website on Mens Diamond Watches which provides reviews on top Brands Like Bulova, Akribos, Invicta, Citizen & more.