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Thread: Servicing Watches

  1. #1
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    Servicing Watches

    I little set of questions that have been niggling me, so thought I would put it out there and ask for your opinions. This should probably been titled "how long is a piece of string" but here goes.

    Assuming we are talking about modern mechanical watches generally, rather than vintage watches what is the consensus on servicing a watch? Do you tend to wait until something goes wrong or do you tend to service your watch(s) on regular intervals as suggested by manufacturer, or perhaps an interval set by you? If a watch is working fine and has been doing so beyond the suggested manufacturer service intervals what issues might the watch be building up if any?

    Basically just want your thoughts on servicing!

  2. #2
    Grand Master MartynJC (UK)'s Avatar
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    Every 10years if no issues. A watch is not a car despite what people say. I’d have the wrt checked if I wanted to swim with any high value watch.

    bit of a mute point - as I tend to sell on my watches before any warranty has run out.
    Last edited by MartynJC (UK); 29th December 2020 at 01:49.

  3. #3
    Master village's Avatar
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    Depends how often you wear it.

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by village View Post
    Depends how often you wear it.
    would have thought that although different in form there are "wear" issues whether or not the watch is being worn?

  5. #5
    Grand Master
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    As one who gets up close with these things, with several years experience of working on watches, I feel I ought to have a definitive answer to the question of how often a watch should be serviced, but there’s no simple answer. I’ve seen watches at 5-6 years old that were running very badly and in dire need of attention, but I’ve also seen watches over 10 years old that were still running fairly well, with evidence that the original lubricants were still holding up OK.

    Several factors have to be considered. If a watch is worn frequently its likely to need servicing more often than one that gets worn sparingly, my own experience bears that out. I suspect this is due to the lubrication of the balance pivots and pallet stones/escapement breaking down. Watches that are being fully hand- wound frequently are likely to suffer wear in the reversers, during hand- winding they spin rapidly and that’s far more arduous than the gentle movement they’re subjected to during automatic winding. Wear is exacerbated when there’s an absence of lubrication, watches that have led a hard life without being serviced will exhibit wear in several places and end up needing replacement parts. However, some parts can’t
    be economically replaced, if the mainplate has suffered the watch may need a replacement movement. This is more of an issue with vintage watches but ETA 2824s can be prone to this.

    If you want your watch to need servicing more frequently, keep it running on a watch winder. This will ensure that wear in the auto- winding mechanism is maximised, I hate the damned things. Running a vintage watch on a winder, or a watch that hasn’t been serviced for several years, is not wise, its sheer folly. These things can also cause wear to the spring barrel walls, eventually leading to poor power reserve. My advice to anyone with a watch winder is to sell it.

    If the winding action starts to feel rough or gritty, or the timekeeping becomes worse (or erratic), or the power reserve deteriorates, these are signs that the watch needs attention. A significant drop in amplitude is confirmation that all’s not well and that’s the most reliable criteria to use.

    For a watch that gets worn frequently I suggest having it serviced every 7 years. For an occasional wearer I’d leave it 10 years provided it ran OK. When buying a second hand watch that’s more than 5-6 years old its worth getting it serviced, I would factor this into the price when buying.
    Last edited by walkerwek1958; 24th December 2020 at 16:57.

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by walkerwek1958 View Post
    As one who gets up close with these things, with several years experience of working on watches, I feel I ought to have a definitive answer to the question of how often a watch should be serviced, but there’s no simple answer. I’ve seen watches at 5-6 years old that were running very badly and in dire need of attention, but I’ve also seen watches over 10 years old that were still running fairly well, with evidence that the original lubricants were still holding up OK.

    Several factors have to be considered. If a watch is worn frequently its likely to need servicing more often than one that gets worn sparingly, my own experience bears that out. I suspect this is due to the lubrication of the balance pivots and pallet stones/escapement breaking down. Watches that are being fully hand- wound frequently are likely to suffer wear in the reversers, during hand- winding they spin rapidly and that’s far more arduous than the gentle movement they’re subjected to during automatic winding. Wear is exacerbated when there’s an absence of lubrication, watches that have led a hard life without being serviced will exhibit wear in several places and end up needing replacement parts. However, some parts can’t
    be economically replaced, if the mainplate has suffered the watch may need a replacement movement. This is more of an issue with vintage watches but ETA 2824s can be prone to this.

    If you want your watch to need servicing more frequently, keep it running on a watch winder. This will ensure that wear in the auto- winding mechanism is maximised, I hate the damned things. Running a vintage watch on a winder, or a watch that hasn’t been serviced for several years, is not wise, its sheer folly. These things can also cause wear to the spring barrel walls, eventually leading to poor power reserve. My advice to anyone with a watch winder is to sell it.

    If the winding action starts to feel rough or gritty, or the timekeeping becomes worse (or erratic), or the power reserve deteriorates, these are signs that the watch needs attention. A significant drop in amplitude is confirmation that all’s not well and that’s the most reliable criteria to use.

    For a watch that gets worn frequently I suggest having it serviced every 7 years. For an occasional wearer I’d leave it 10 years provided it ran OK. When buying a second hand watch that’s more than 5-6 years old its worth getting it serviced, I would factor this into the price when buying.
    Brilliant! thank you for that hugely comprehensive answer and just what I was looking for. Here's one for you: I have a 5yr old Speedmaster which is running perfectly - almost to atomic clock standards of accuracy, as even after 6 weeks or more it's still spot on with the time, but last summer, for no apparent reason it suddenly ended up with moisture hazing under the sapphire crystal (not heselite). It disappeared after a couple of days (I buried it in some rice - all I had to hand) - and is still running perfectly, but I wonder if this is an indication that it needs a service...something I have avoided currently due to covid circumstances or was it just a freak event?

  7. #7
    Master Kirk280's Avatar
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    To be honest I just ask Walkerwek1958 what he thinks and go from there!

    (And no I’m not trolling....I’m being entirely honest. And in normal times a few pints are involved too! 🍺🍺🍺)

  8. #8
    Craftsman Euan Begbie's Avatar
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    For reference, I spoke to Rolex at St James last week and they said anything with a plexi is generally 5-6 years and and anything sapphire is 10 years.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

  9. #9
    Master
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    Quote Originally Posted by walkerwek1958 View Post
    As one who gets up close with these things, with several years experience of working on watches, I feel I ought to have a definitive answer to the question of how often a watch should be serviced, but there’s no simple answer. I’ve seen watches at 5-6 years old that were running very badly and in dire need of attention, but I’ve also seen watches over 10 years old that were still running fairly well, with evidence that the original lubricants were still holding up OK.

    Several factors have to be considered. If a watch is worn frequently its likely to need servicing more often than one that gets worn sparingly, my own experience bears that out. I suspect this is due to the lubrication of the balance pivots and pallet stones/escapement breaking down. Watches that are being fully hand- wound frequently are likely to suffer wear in the reversers, during hand- winding they spin rapidly and that’s far more arduous than the gentle movement they’re subjected to during automatic winding. Wear is exacerbated when there’s an absence of lubrication, watches that have led a hard life without being serviced will exhibit wear in several places and end up needing replacement parts. However, some parts can’t
    be economically replaced, if the mainplate has suffered the watch may need a replacement movement. This is more of an issue with vintage watches but ETA 2824s can be prone to this.

    If you want your watch to need servicing more frequently, keep it running on a watch winder. This will ensure that wear in the auto- winding mechanism is maximised, I hate the damned things. Running a vintage watch on a winder, or a watch that hasn’t been serviced for several years, is not wise, its sheer folly. These things can also cause wear to the spring barrel walls, eventually leading to poor power reserve. My advice to anyone with a watch winder is to sell it.

    If the winding action starts to feel rough or gritty, or the timekeeping becomes worse (or erratic), or the power reserve deteriorates, these are signs that the watch needs attention. A significant drop in amplitude is confirmation that all’s not well and that’s the most reliable criteria to use.

    For a watch that gets worn frequently I suggest having it serviced every 7 years. For an occasional wearer I’d leave it 10 years provided it ran OK. When buying a second hand watch that’s more than 5-6 years old its worth getting it serviced, I would factor this into the price when buying.
    I attended the Roger Smith lecture approx 12 months ago at University of London. He did a very interesting presentation on service schedules and how some marques are pushing the service intervals out to 10years. Interesting analysis of the escapement type and beat frequency (obviously he’s a fan of the dual escapement), but interesting comments on oils, materials and beat frequencies.

  10. #10
    Master
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    Quote Originally Posted by walkerwek1958 View Post
    Watches that are being fully hand- wound frequently are likely to suffer wear in the reversers, during hand- winding they spin rapidly and that’s far more arduous than the gentle movement they’re subjected to during automatic winding.
    Interested by this bit especially, since I tend to wear several automatics in rotation and therefore to wind each additionally in turn in order to prevent them stopping. If you can bear to spell this out in layman's terms, what are 'reversers' - are these something which would be replaced at a service, for example, or simply need lubricating sooner? And would slower hand-winding make any meaningful difference over time? Cheers.

  11. #11
    Journeyman jsong6688's Avatar
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    I go with ... If it ain't broken don't fix it

  12. #12
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    Servicing.

    Just looked up this thread as unexpectedly and only a few days after receiving the Smiths Navigator my PRS29a just stopped working!

    I think it may be jealous of the new boy on the block.

  13. #13
    Grand Master Wallasey Runner's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tom-P View Post
    Interested by this bit especially, since I tend to wear several automatics in rotation and therefore to wind each additionally in turn in order to prevent them stopping. If you can bear to spell this out in layman's terms, what are 'reversers' - are these something which would be replaced at a service, for example, or simply need lubricating sooner? And would slower hand-winding make any meaningful difference over time? Cheers.
    I'm interested in the answer to this. As one who regularly lets my automatic watches run down and stop and then give a good wind before wearing again, are we saying a gentle few turns to get it going and natural wrist movement is better than say 40 to 50 turns.

    On other threads, especially about running performance it usually gets stated that a watch that is not fully wound won't perform as well, which is a sort of mixed message to the above or are we splitting watch performance and longevity of the movement here.

  14. #14
    I may be in the minority here but I tend not to handwind my automatics. I usually just put them on and let the rotor do its stuff. I think I was put off years ago when reading that the eta2824 wasn’t particularly suited to handwinding.

  15. #15
    I’m in camp “if it ain’t broke…”

    I monitor my watches daily, check WR yearly and service when their rate jumps out of ordinary.

  16. #16
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    I have only really been into the watch collecting scene for a couple of years and currently have narrowed down to 3 watches that are here for the long haul. All 3 are new this year and I rotate between the 3. I check the accuracy of them as I wear them and will continue to do so. I believe in doing that I will be able to spot any irregularities as to performance.

    I did have a vintage Tissot that I had serviced because it was obvious that it needed it since it wouldn't run, but after that I decided I wasn't going down the vintage rabbit hole.

  17. #17
    Master aldfort's Avatar
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    As has been said.

    I tend to wear my watches in (sort of) rotation. so servicing every 8-10 years seems sufficient. Unless (big but coming) the watch exhibits a tendancy to gain or lose significant time. Then it's off for a nice service.

    As to winding. I do it slowly and only enough to get the watch ticking. With the Tudor, as an example that's about 10 winds. With the Omega (fresh from service) that's about 3 winds.

  18. #18
    Master beechcustom's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mr Tetley View Post
    I may be in the minority here but I tend not to handwind my automatics. I usually just put them on and let the rotor do its stuff. I think I was put off years ago when reading that the eta2824 wasn’t particularly suited to handwinding.
    Having read some of the comments on this thread I I am inclined to start doing this too. I usually do a full wind (40 plus quick turns) at the start of a new wearing cycle. I imagine that time keeping will suffer as the watch won't be at full wind straight away.

  19. #19
    Quote Originally Posted by beechcustom View Post
    Having read some of the comments on this thread I I am inclined to start doing this too. I usually do a full wind (40 plus quick turns) at the start of a new wearing cycle. I imagine that time keeping will suffer as the watch won't be at full wind straight away.
    Re:Timekeeping, I think it depends on the watch in question and wearing pattern. As an example, I picked up an unwound Muhle Glashutte (with a humble Sellita sw200) a few days ago and I gave it a gentle ‘twirl’ to get the second hand going, then set the time using Time.is. Today it’s +2sec against Time.is so it doesn’t seem to have suffered too much by not being at full wind straight away.

    I have noticed some watches behave differently, but generally nothing drastic. I’ve found timekeeping deviates more if a watch at low wind is just sitting in the watch box and not on the wrist.

    If timekeeping is a concern. Just wear the unwound watch for a day and then reset the time when it’s wound itself a bit.
    Last edited by Mr Tetley; 29th December 2020 at 16:33.

  20. #20
    Apprentice Johnny.h's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Rich View Post
    I little set of questions that have been niggling me, so thought I would put it out there and ask for your opinions. This should probably been titled "how long is a piece of string" but here goes.

    Assuming we are talking about modern mechanical watches generally, rather than vintage watches what is the consensus on servicing a watch? Do you tend to wait until something goes wrong or do you tend to service your watch(s) on regular intervals as suggested by manufacturer, or perhaps an interval set by you? If a watch is working fine and has been doing so beyond the suggested manufacturer service intervals what issues might the watch be building up if any?

    Basically just want your thoughts on servicing!
    My rule of thumb is if it keeps good time and the power reserve hasn’t diminished to much on a automatic I tend to leave well alone but if you are thinking of a service do your research on the watchmaker you choose

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