Maintenance
How to keep a watch healthy for years: servicing, water-resistance testing, storage and winding.
A good watch lasts for decades when it is looked after. The oils in a mechanical watch dry out over time and the gaskets wear, so regular servicing protects both accuracy and water resistance.
The terms in this section explain how to store a watch, when to have it serviced and which accessories are actually worth it.
- Demagnetizing
- Demagnetizing is the process of clearing the magnetic field from the magnetized parts of a mechanical watch. When a watch suddenly starts running very fast, magnetism is often the cause. A small tool called a demagnetizer fixes it in seconds, cheaply.
- Gasket
- A gasket is a rubber ring fitted at the crown, caseback, and crystal that keeps water and dust out. It compresses as the watch closes, sealing the gaps. Because rubber hardens and loses its spring with age, gaskets need periodic replacement.
- Pressure Test
- A pressure test verifies a watch's water resistance on a machine before you trust it in water. A dry test uses air pressure to detect case leaks, while a wet test submerges the watch under pressure. It is essential after any battery change or service.
- Regulation
- Regulation is the fine adjustment that brings a mechanical watch closer to true time. By moving the regulator lever, a watchmaker changes the effective length of the balance spring, which speeds up or slows down the oscillation and reduces how many seconds the watch gains or loses each day.
- Servicing
- Servicing is a full overhaul where a watchmaker opens the watch, cleans the movement, replaces worn gaskets and oils, then reseals and tests it. Mechanical watches need it every few years and quartz far less often. It keeps both timekeeping and water resistance reliable.
- Watch Winder
- A watch winder is a motorized box that gently rotates an automatic watch to keep it wound and running while you are not wearing it. It is handy for a watch with a date, a perpetual calendar that is slow to reset, or a collection in rotation. Hand-wound and quartz watches do not need one, so for most owners it is largely a convenience rather than a requirement.