Care
An automatic watch has no battery. It stores the energy of your movement in a spring, and spends it when you take it off. Everything else follows from that.
Worn today and still on your wrist: the rotor keeps the spring full.
The crown
Everything you will ever do to the watch happens with the crown. Pull it gently, never force it, and always push it back flush when you are done.
Turn the crown forwards, towards 12 o'clock, 25 to 30 times. You will feel a soft resistance build: that is the spring filling, not a problem. On an automatic you cannot overwind it by hand.
Something feels stuck, gritty or loose? Stop and write to us before forcing it.
Everyday life
A mechanical movement is a few hundred steel parts turning in oil. Almost nothing about daily life bothers it — but four things do, and three of them are silent.
Your watch is rated 3 ATM. That covers rain, a splashed sink, a sudden shower on the street. It does not cover swimming, diving, a hot shower or a sauna — heat expands the gaskets and steam walks straight through them. Water inside a movement rusts the steel within days, and rust does not come back out.
Take it off before water, every time.
The hairspring is steel. Park it on a laptop, a phone speaker, an iPad cover or a magnetic clasp and the coils cling to each other — the watch suddenly runs minutes fast a day. Nothing is broken and nothing is worn, but it will not correct itself.
Keep it a hand's width from anything magnetic. A watchmaker demagnetises it in two minutes.
The balance staff is thinner than a hair. Normal wear, sport, a bumped doorframe — all fine, that is what the shock protection is for. A hard drop onto tile or concrete is a different event, and so is anything that hammers the wrist: tennis serves, boxing, a jackhammer, heavy lifting.
If it falls hard, check it against a clock for two days before assuming it survived.
Perfume, alcohol gel, sunscreen, chlorine and household cleaners attack gaskets and leather far faster than they attack steel. The case survives; the strap dries out, cracks at the fold, and the crown gasket stops sealing.
Spray perfume first, put the watch on after. Rinse and dry after salt water.
The rhythm
Running fast, running slow, or stopped for no reason? Tell us what it is doing — most of it is magnetism, and magnetism is free to fix.
Almost certainly not — it is magnetised. A hairspring that has touched a laptop, a phone speaker or a magnetic clasp will suddenly gain minutes instead of seconds. Nothing is worn and nothing is damaged. Any watchmaker demagnetises it in about two minutes, usually for free or close to it. If it still gains after that, then it needs regulating.
Not quartz-accurate, and it never will be. A mechanical movement in this class typically sits somewhere around -20 to +40 seconds a day, and the same watch will run differently depending on whether it spent the night dial-up or crown-down. Judge it over a week, not over an afternoon. Drifting by a minute or two a week is a mechanical watch behaving normally.
Yes. A full mainspring holds roughly 38 hours, so a watch taken off on Friday evening is stopped by Sunday. That is the design, not a fault. Wind it about thirty turns, set the time, and put it back on.
No. It is rated 3 ATM, which covers rain and splashes, not immersion. Hot water is worse than deep water: steam expands the gaskets and pushes moisture past them. If you see condensation under the glass, take the watch to a watchmaker the same week — water sitting on the movement rusts it permanently.
Your hands are twelve hours out. Advance the time one full turn of the dial so the date changes at midnight, then set it to the correct time. It is a two-minute fix and it does not hurt the movement.
No. A winder is a convenience for someone rotating several watches, not maintenance. It keeps a watch running so you skip the resetting — it does not extend the life of the movement, and a cheap winder that runs constantly does the opposite. Winding by hand costs thirty seconds.
Face up in a dry drawer or a soft pouch, away from speakers, laptops and anything magnetic. Let it stop. Loosen a leather strap so it keeps its shape rather than holding a curve. Before wearing it again, wind it fully and check the time against a clock for a couple of days.
Stop using it and write to us. Forcing a crown that will not turn, or continuing to wear a watch that rattles, is how a small repair becomes a replacement movement. Describe exactly what it is doing and when it started, and we will tell you whether it is a setting issue or a workshop job.
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