Six Things You May Be Doing That Are Not Good For Your Watch

While all of us appreciate mechanical watches, sometimes we don't put as much thought into how we are actually supposed to take care of them. In this video, I'll cover six things you may inadvertently be doing that can be harmful to your beloved timepiece. Are you guys guilty of doing any of this stuff? Are there any other common issues I'm missing?

0:00 - Intro & Organization
1:30 - 1. Activating Complications at the Wrong Time
3:42 - 2. Magnetic Fields
5:45 - 3. Shock
8:20 - 4. Screw Down Crowns
9:44 - 5. Winding or Setting Your Watch on the Wrist
11:16 - 6. Storage

[TheSaiyanKing]

7. Be careful when you go through a door frame. Seriously. 95% of all the bangs my watch has sustained, has been because of my dumb ass hitting it on door frames.

[Cowboy.underwater]

My experience:
Riding a motorcycle with a mechanical watch is fine.
Crashing a motorcycle with a mechanical watch is NOT fine.

[richardcope]

Today I am wearing a 40+ year old Seiko Automatic. It has been serviced once during this period of time.

[slowlesaca]

watchmaker here-
good advice all around!
The one tip I want to add is to use caution with soaps! Most water resistant watches are sealed with oil-impregnated rubber or silicone gaskets in the crown/tube and caseback. Soaps will pull the oil out of those gaskets and dry them prematurely. A little bit of soapy water when you wash your hands is fine. Just be careful around washing your car, dishes, etc

[laurencehogg]

As Teddy says, it's not all doom-gloomery. This is a true story: like the fool that I am, about 5-6 years ago I hurried out of the bedroom in the middle of fitting one of my favourites (a Brosnan-era Seamaster Pro) to my wrist, and dropped the watch. It went through the banisters, down the side of the stairs and straight onto a laminate floor. I actually felt sick - the noise it made when it hit the floor was like loud crack. So I rushed downstairs to get the watch, which just carried on as if nothing had happened. The floor still has the dent in it.

[Jubal.Harshaw]

My grandfather, when gifting to me my first watch, pointed out that over winding a watch was the absolute WORST mistake almost everyone was guilty of. He recommended letting your watch run completely down the first time. Then, when winding it, count how many half turns it takes to completely wind the watch. There after, every time you wind the watch (daily) only wind it just over 1/2 the total amount. Since his recommendation, I have always followed his advice.

[reviewmirror]

As a watchmaker by profession since 2011 I must say that you are spot on on most occasions, especially when it comes to winders, I here this myth on a regular basis from customers at the shop I'm working that it's good for watches to be in winders, that's just not true, it just wears them down over time. One thing I can ad is that swan necks in most cases don't prevent the "adjustment arms" to move, those arms can be moved independently from the swan neck screws so they can still get moved out of position if the watch recieves a shock. For Rolex and most high end watches this is not a problem because there is no such arms but instead small screws on the balance wheel that the watchmaker moves in and out to move the center of gravity. One thing more to keep in mind is to not take your watch in to the sauna, or leave it where it's very warm, the heat will with time dry out the oils and it will need service more frequently and the paint on the dial might age faster, there might even be condensation in the watch because of the temperature change. I really like your videos, keep up the good work!

[TheMinidrey]

I’m a watchmaker. One thing I see a lot is people hand winding their automatic watches despite wearing them daily. Yes, main springs on autos are designed in a way that they slip when fully wound, however that ‘slips’ being done over and over again turns into grinding and chaos ensues with the automatic and winding mechanism being worn down faster that the service period.

[okihaveaname]

Tip: move your SKX007 or other mechanical forward to 6 oclock (safe zone) before setting the date. Set the date 1 day prior to your current day if you're not sure it's AM or PM.

[SuicideVan]

Shocks...my ETA 7750 powered Tag Heurer Carrera Calibre 16 not only shrugged off the vibrations from motorcycle regularly, but a rather big shock when a truck pulled out into me hitting me on the left side, the side I was wearing the watch on.

My wrist was compound fractured with my hand nearly severed. I have trauma amnesia and don't remember anything, but the watch being strapped on might have saved my hand.

I'm blown away that it still keeps time at about +2 to +5 seconds a day.

[xMooD]

One addition to storage: be careful when storing watches with steel bracelets and display casebacks. If the bracelet touches the glass caseback (E.g. tucking it in a roll) it can scratch it up (if it's mineral glass).

[gerardogarcia-trio]

Very good advices. About vibration: the antishock system works really well, but it's not invulnerable. I put my watches box into the car trunk for a trip, to show them to a relative, and even when they were cushined, over more luggage, and it was just a road trip without big stress, some bump damaged one of the watches. After one year of erratic malfunction, I found what was the problem: the antichosk system of the balance jumped so high that it got jammed and could not come back to it normal position. Easy to fix, I just had to reposition it, but it's was a good warning about vibration and mechanical watches!

[macmorgan]

In 67 I bought a Speedmaster while serving in the army in Germany and wore it daily through maneuvers and fire missions. After a couple of years it started to show some condensation on the crystal. It went through a house fire and survived as well as being given to a friend who wore it till it quit! I finally had it repaired/serviced (cost was 7x it’s original cost of $94.00) and still have it. Also have a 77 GMT which I lent to friends. One managed to loose the bezel but had it replaced. It was never serviced till recently but ran well loosing a few minutes. I’ve been keeping it safe in a watch box.
.

[timetowatch_francois]

Thanks for your insight Teddy.
I store my watches in a display watch box (for my solar powered watches) and all of my boxes have Silica gel packs to help minimize the humidity.
Keep 'em coming!

[CaptainXanax]

As a watchmaker, I've seen many more watches with damage due to vibration than shock or impact. Yes, occasionally a watch will come in with a broken balance pivot, or an off center dial, but what I've seen much more of is screws (either bridge or casing) backing out due to vibration and getting lost in the movement or getting jammed up in the balance wheel or escape wheel. If there are loose bridge screws, I will tighten then down for the customer but will be under the assumption that there are other screws that I can't see that are also loose and will recommend a full service. There is no warranty for the customer if they bring in the watch a week later and it's stopped just because I tightened some bridge screws before.
As for causes, motorcycles and bicycles are by far the most common culprits.

[HelloJack]

I used to wear my Seiko SNK809 while using an impact wrench for a month before getting a beater casio. The timekeeping of the watch wasn't badly affected, but I found out that some of the screws got a bit loose in the mechanism.

[styswojtek]

Great video! I would like to add one more or less obvious thing: watch maintenance and cleaning.
I like to keep watches with polished bezels clean, like tudor bb36, Seiko SARB033 etc. Constant wiping using cloth can scratch metal surface really badly! If your watch has good water resiatance it is better to clean it gently with mild water first. This will remove dust particles and then dry it with paper towel and wipe. Unfortunately I found it difficult to resist not to wipe a watch when I am at work and see some smudges :)

as for shock resistance, I play piano for a few hours every day and never take my automatic watch off my wrist. My hand is moving quickly during playing but everything seems fine so far.

[coffeeisgood]

Great video. Every point was dead on. Following this advice will go a long way to ensure that a watch and it’s owner enjoy many years of time together.

[maomao]

With regards to screw down crowns, if you want to be extra careful. Wind it in reverse while keeping pressure until you feel a click then screw it forwards to tighten.

[jltrem]

My favorite screw up (which I've done three times) is taking off my watch before jumping in the shower and placing it on the bathroom sink, then when attempting to put it back on, inadvertently dropping it face down on the ceramic tile bathroom floor, smashing the crystal. I've finally trained myself to take off my watch in the bedroom, when getting ready to shower.