The Owners Guide to Wristwatches

Faults and Maintenance

Faults:

Mechanical wristwatches suffer from the same faults as clocks and pocket watches and also have some of their own because of their smallness and comparative delicacy.

1. Mainsprings can break at any time due to metal fatigue or to over-zealous winding.
2. They can seize up due to the oil ageing and becoming sticky. Remember that wristwatches run on an incredibly small amount of power and it takes very little stickiness to make them stop.
3. Like other timepieces they are usually badly neglected and are seldom regularly serviced.
4. A sudden jerk may cause the hairspring to become caught up on other parts to make the watch gain rapidly.
5. Dropping a watch frequently breaks a part, often the balance pivots, and can be expensive to repair. In the past, parts for a particular model were stocked for up to 30 years, now it is more like three years, so don't expect replacement parts to be readily available.

Maintenance:

Wristwatches should be serviced every 18 months.

If the knurling on the winding button becomes worn, have the button replaced.

Keep an eye on the strap fixings and at the first sign of weakness, have them repaired.

Do not leave the battery in a watch while it is being stored. If the battery leaks then it's goodbye to the watch.

Have the battery replaced at the recommended interval.