Thoughts on mechanical watch maintenance

Since the website's trial launch, we have received many enquiries from netizens on how to maintain mechanical watches. I have summarised ten personal tips: mid-to-high-end watches should ideally be serviced every 1 to 2 years, which includes replacing waterproof seals, testing timekeeping performance and movement power consumption, cleaning the movement, and caring for the exterior. Such servicing will effectively extend the lifespan of your mechanical watch.

    (1) When wearing a watch, sweat from your hands is corrosive to the case. All-steel cases, being nickel-chromium alloys, offer better corrosion resistance, whereas semi-steel cases are made of brass and easily corrode with prolonged contact with sweat. You should frequently wipe away sweat with a soft cloth or use a plastic watch cradle to prevent corrosion.

    (2) Do not open the case back casually to prevent dust from entering the movement and affecting the watch's normal operation.

    (3) Do not place your watch in a wardrobe containing mothballs to prevent the watch oil from deteriorating.

    (4) Do not place your watch on power amplifiers, speakers, or televisions to avoid magnetisation.

    (5) Watches that are stored for long periods without being worn should be wound regularly once a month. For automatic mechanical watches, gently swing them back and forth for a few minutes or wear them on your wrist for a period to automatically wind the mainspring. This prevents the components from remaining stationary for a long time and ensures the operating performance of the movement.

    (6) If an ordinary mechanical watch gets damp, dry cotton can be pressed against the watch and then heated with a 40-watt light bulb for 5 minutes; the moisture inside the watch will then be completely evaporated. If a quartz electronic watch gets damp, take a few small pieces of calcium chloride, wrap them in gauze, open the electronic watch back, and place the wrapped calcium chloride and the electronic watch together in an airtight plastic bag or glass jar and seal it. Generally, the moisture can be removed in about 3 hours, restoring the electronic watch to normal. For severely damp watches, the moisture absorption time can be appropriately extended.

    (7) When receiving a cherished watch and removing the outer packaging, be sure to keep the packaging box used to protect the watch. These protective boxes can provide the safest protection for the watch when it is not being worn ordinarily, preventing it from being dropped or bumped. Therefore, keeping the packaging box is essential, and it is recommended to make it a habit to put the watch back in the box when not wearing it daily, which will greatly reduce the chance of damage.

    (8) It is best not to wear the same watch every day; you should prepare several different watches to wear in rotation. In addition to enriching your personal style, this also prevents dust and body oils from accumulating entirely on a single watch. For leather straps, extra care must be taken to avoid constant wear and tear caused by daily use, otherwise even if the dial looks brand new, the watch will still appear very old.

    (9) Wearing a watch on your wrist while sleeping, if it is a luminous watch, can have adverse effects on the body. This is because the luminous material coated on the hands and markers of luminous watches is mainly a mixture of radium and zinc sulphide, and the rays emitted by radium excite the zinc sulphide crystals to emit light. When sleeping, if you wear the watch, your body will be subjected to eight to nine hours of radium radiation, which is somewhat harmful to the human body. Therefore, before going to sleep, it is best to take off the luminous watch and place it on a table.

   (10) Glass refurbishment. Once the watch glass has many scratches, you can drop one or two drops of clean water onto the glass, squeeze a little toothpaste onto it and wipe it, which can remove the scratches and make the watch glass look brand new.