Caring for your watch

Water, honestly

Treat a rated depth as a margin, not an invitation. A 100 m watch is fine in a shower and a swimming pool; a 300 m dive watch is fine anywhere you are. What kills watches is not depth but three specific things: working the crown or pushers underwater, hot water and steam, which expand gaskets faster than they recover, and salt left to dry on a bracelet.

Rinse under a cold tap after the sea, dry with a soft cloth, and have gaskets checked whenever a caseback has been opened.

Winding and setting, in the right order

Wind off the wrist. On the wrist the crown is pushed sideways as it turns and the stem takes the load. Thirty turns is plenty on a hand-wound piece; stop the moment it stiffens.

Never set the date while the hands are between nine and three. The date mechanism is engaged in that window and forcing it is the most common self-inflicted repair in the trade. Wind the hands to six o'clock first, set the date, then set the time.

Screw a crown down gently until it seats and then stop. Threads are the cheapest part to break and among the dearest to replace.

Magnets, which are everywhere now

A watch that suddenly gains five minutes a day is almost never broken; it is magnetised. Laptop lids, phone cases with MagSafe rings, speaker cabinets, handbag clasps, iPad covers, the strip in a hotel door — all of them are strong enough. Keeping a watch a hand's width from any of these is enough, and any watchmaker can demagnetise a piece in about a minute for almost nothing.

Storage, and the winder question

A drawer, face up, away from magnets and away from a sunny windowsill is all a watch needs. Heat ages a dial and a lubricant; sunlight fades a dial permanently.

A winder is a comfort, not a necessity. If you wear a piece weekly it is a pleasant thing to own. If you wear it daily it does nothing except add running hours between services, which is the opposite of what you wanted.

The bracelet, which shows wear first

Skin oil and dust turn into a grey paste in the links, and that paste is an abrasive: a bracelet cleaned twice a year outlasts one never cleaned by years of looking new. Warm water, a drop of washing-up liquid, a soft toothbrush along the links, rinse, dry thoroughly — with the crown screwed down and only if the watch is water resistant.

Check the clasp and the screws every few months. A bracelet that has begun to rattle is a bracelet about to lose a screw, and a watch on the floor is a different conversation.

Servicing, and when to worry

A mechanical watch worn regularly wants attention every five to seven years. The signs that it wants attention sooner are specific: a rate that has drifted well past where it was, a reserve that has collapsed, a rotor you can hear grinding rather than settling, or moisture on the inside of the glass.

If any of those appear inside two years of buying from us, write to the desk rather than to a watchmaker: mechanical defects are covered for two full years, and we would rather have the piece back on our own bench.