Reply With QuoteI haven't kept one long enough to need to service yet! However, I wouldnt service a watch unless it needed it. In other words it stopped working
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Suppose I have 5 watches in rotation and they get equal wrist time, does it mean the service interval is extended? From every 5 years to perhaps 10-15years. What are your thoughts on this?
Thanks,
R
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I haven't kept one long enough to need to service yet! However, I wouldnt service a watch unless it needed it. In other words it stopped working
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I only service when needed.
Omega SMPc after 20 years.
Seiko SKX after 20 years.
Oris big Crown pointer also after 20 years.
None of the others need it yet.
Works for me. The divers though get pressure checked every other year but no service.
Rotating watches and service intervals...
Has been asked before
Last edited by MartynJC (UK); 13th January 2019 at 00:48.
Originally Posted by MartynJC (UK)
I have mine serviced every five years in line with manufacturers recommendations and view it as preventative maintenance.
I think this is a fairly sensible precutionary measure as oils can tend to dry up after a while.
Looking forward to Paul’s (walkerwek58) comments here.
Mine only get serviced if or when issues arise.
Yes, you can argue for 'preventative maintenance', but I know how businesses work and there's a big incentive for them to maximise recurring income, so I view it that way and choose not to fund them (I may feel differently if I had an expensive new watch, possibly).
M
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Breitling Cosmonaute 809 - What's not to like?
Everything has been asked before
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Every 12 months or 18,000 miles.
Edit:
Sorry that was meant for the Volvo Forum
Get yourself a Timegrapher App or, if you can justify it, a Timegrapher. A quick spin on either will tell you definitively if your watch needs a service. Have a look on YouTube for what the readings mean to a user and a watchmaker. HERE'S a starter for 10 (Duncan Potter from Genesis Watchmaking):
^^^^
This.
I check accuracy on regular basis and if watch suddenly slows down or speeds up, it's time for service. Once a year I get tested WR and watchmaker puts watch on timegrapher to check movement. I serviced SMP GMT when it was 10 years old and 6 years after that, Speedmaster - after I had it for 8 years.
I haven't asked this before, have it? (Sorry getting all existential on a Sunday night)Everything has been asked before
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How can oil degrade if it’s unused and in an incredibly well sealed watch .
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That will happen just leaving it in the unopened bottle. Each one has a lot no. and expiry date.
So, what exactly is the expiry date on a new unopened bottle?
For modern synthetic oils in a sealed dark environment I’m struggling to see an obvious mechanism for degradation. However, I have to go with the advice regarding shelf life of oils.
Watch lubricants are expensive and several different ones are required. Restocking with the common ones will cost around £120. Add on another bottle of Fixodrop epilame solution and that’s over £200.
Do you understand why they degrade? The only information on degradation of synthetic oil I can find relates to motor oils in a far more arduous environment.
That will happen just leaving it in the unopened bottle. Each one has a lot no. and expiry date.
Is it the additives that degrade? If you can cast some light on this I’m keen to learn.
Oil evaporates over time, leaving just the dust and detritus it's accumulated. However, as most decent watches have jewelled bearings they can run quite happily with no oil for many years.
I'd put my watch servicing interval the same as my going to the dentist interval - ie every ten years or when somethings gone wrong, 'cause it's damned expensive and they're bound to come up with something that needs to be fixed.
Cartier made the 'ID-two' watch a few years ago that had no lubrication. I suspect this was a by-product of housing the movement in a vacuum though as any liquid would evaporate pretty damned quick in that environment.
https://www.hodinkee.com/articles/in...t-watch-watchm
edit: about the same interval for the seals as they become less flexible and start depositing 'carbon rubber dust' after a while
Last edited by LorneG; 15th January 2019 at 12:42.
I don’t want to be argumentative, just want to learn , how can oil evaporate in a sealed container ?
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You have to think beyond simple evaporation. Oils degrade for other reasons as well. An oil isn’t one simple liquid like water, it’s made up of lots of different chemicals which don’t stay the same over time. In particular some oxidise, combining with oxygen to form different chemicals which don’t lubricate as well. Changes in temperature can also bring about changes in the oil, as can the physical movement of mechanical parts in the oil. Different metals can sometime act as catalysts speeding up the changes in some oils. All of these are tiny effects, especially in a synthetic oil designed to resist them, but over time they make a difference.
I guess if you have an oil in a sealed bottle with no air kept at a constant temperature it will last a long time, but not forever.
Ummm just sent my Sinn 856 UTC in for service completely dry and rattling...I think 12 years since it was serviced it showed no problems apparently it should be ok ! Worn in rotation but I wish now I had it serviced at least every 5 years in spite of not being worn everyday......
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Nitrogen (or even better, argon) filling a watch should help.
Yes, and keeping it stationary in a temperature-controlled cabinet, unwound to avoid stirring the oil up ;).
This.
Would be nice to service them every few years, but Ive made a call that its not worth the time and effort for my collection of affordables. Its easier to service when something goes wrong.
Last service happened as a bi-product of sending it in for repair to the crystal.
No container is perfectly sealed, at least none that oil comes in.
A watch, even a diving watch, isn't really a sealed container as you'll pull the crown or push a button every once in a while. Even if you don't, then the seals themselves aren't perfect seals as gasses can permeate through them. I think the fad for putting nitrogen in a car tyre instead of air is the lower molecular mobility of N2 compared to all the things in air meaning it takes more time to permeate through the rubber walls. This permeation is the reason those helium filled rubber balloons that kids like so much go soft and squidgy after a bit (that and the dads untying them to play the squeeky voice game)
So in a watch, which is generally quite warm as it sits on your wrist, the small amount of lubricating oil can slowly (over about 10 years) evaporate and then make its way out of the watch as a gas.
For those Cartier watches I referenced, then having no pressure inside them would make any oil evaporate very quickly (I'm guessing within a day or two) and then just sit inside the sealed case as a gas, or I guess if you were unlucky it might condense as a small drop on the dial or glass.
As alfat33 says, oil in a sealed glass container should last an awful long time. It took 65 million years to turn itself into oil so I'm guessing it'll be a while before it chemically decomposes.
Last edited by LorneG; 16th January 2019 at 13:00.
Not really practical for a watch being used but filling with an inert gas is done by some manufacturers.
Sure, I was just teasing ;). Is it Sinn who do that? I’m sure there must be others.
Thanks all , thats answered my questions .
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Never did understand the nitrogen in car tyres thing since air is 80% nitrogen in any case.
Maybe its just that nitrogen, filled from a tank rather than compressing atmospheric air, is just dryer and has less impurities
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Agree ^^. As long as the watch is reasonably keeping time, I do not service them.
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