Regardless of the brand of the timepiece you preferred, maintenance is needed for your watch to last for a long time and perform accurately. In this article, we gathered the details you need to know about the details of timepiece maintenance.
The points you should pay attention to for taking good care of your timepiece are as follows:
#1 Follow the maintenance manual of your watch
It may sound boring, but it is important for you to read the maintenance manual of your watch. When you purchase your watch, most probably there will be a maintenance manual in its box. Even though certain details apply to all timepieces in basic principle, every timepiece is exclusive, it is best to stick to its respective maintenance manual in order to apply the best maintenance to your watch.
#2 Clean your watch
Since your watch is with you all day long, it has the tendency to carry the dirt on every area your hand touches. Moreover, if areas such as where the strap and the case contact your wrist have indented designs, extra dirt and fat deposit can be observed. Therefore, you can wipe your watch every other day with a soft lint-free cloth that will not scratch your watch.
Do your watch cleaning in-depth every few months. Likewise, you can clean your watch with a soft cloth and warm water. Before using your watch again, make sure that it is completely dry and clean.
Exposing your watch to chemicals such as soap, detergent, alcohol and perfume can damage the case or strap of your watch. If your watch is in really bad condition, ask for help from a timepiece expert for a professional in-depth cleaning.
According to the water resistance of your watch, cleaning with water or a dry cloth is among the details you need to pay attention to in mechanical timepiece maintenance.
#3 Adjust your watch correctly
Most of the automatic watches do not require hand winding. It will be adequate to lightly shake these watches so that they start running again.
The most important rule to pay attention to for your automatic and hand-wound mechanical watches is to set your watch as recommended in the user's manual. Changing dates at wrong times according to the positions of the wheels and failure to do the settings in order on watches with detailed calendars might cause wheels to break.
#4 Take off your watch while having shower
It is recommended that you do not wear a watch while having shower. Even though your watch is water resistant, some watches have a capacity to resist a certain temperature. Temperature and steam might loosen the seals that prevent water intrusion to the interior parts. This might disrupt the working system of your watch or cause appearances such as fog and mist on the dial.
#5 Protect your watch from excessive humidity and heat
Watches are resistant to many factors depending on the materials they are made of. However, not exposing them to excessive heat and humidity will increase the service life of your watches. Heat can shorten battery life if you store quartz watches in direct sunlight. In automatic watch maintenance, it is also important that you do not expose your watch to direct sunlight. Because the surface and colour of a watch with a leather strap might fade due to excessive heat.
On the other hand, humid environments might cause problems such as rusting on your watch. For this reason, you must store your watch in a dry place away from heat. You can use lightproof watch boxes and cabinets.
#6 Keep your watch away from chemicals
Especially your watches with leather straps tend to being highly damaged when exposed to soap, cologne, perfume or cleaning agents. Such chemical substances might thin the leather strap and cause it to break off.
#7 Take off your watch while doing sports.
We know you do not want to be away from your watch even for a while. However, at times that require extreme movements, a sudden shock might restrain the gear sets of your watch from movement and might cause breaking down. Therefore, you must apply extra protection to your watch in automatic timepiece maintenance.
#8 Do not open your watch
In general, most people are interested in solving the problems they encounter on their own in mechanical watch maintenance. Although the idea of in-depth cleaning and repairing the watch by opening the movement seems quite exciting, it can damage your watch. If you are not an expert on this subject, it would be right not to open the inside of your watch by yourself.
#9 Seek expert help
Automatic watch maintenance must be performed by a watchmaker at certain intervals. You must get help from authorised services or a professional to keep your watch working properly and to increase its service life.