How to Care and Maintain Your Luxury Watch, The Definitive Guide.
Maintaining and caring for your luxury watch is paramount to keep things, excuse the pun, ticking over! Not unlike maintaining a car, a wee bit of planning and proactive foresight will ensure your prized timepiece stays in great condition, which is important for it to retain its potential resale or heirloom value.
But just how do you keep your special investment in the best condition? The maintenance process can seem daunting, so we’ve compiled it into 10 easy points to action.
1. Have your luxury watch regularly serviced
Seems like a no-brainer really. Watches gather dust, oils and scratches with wear, seals can deteriorate over time, parts can get worn down and need replacing. The watch can even become inaccurate or stop working at all and all of this can affect its value when coming to sell. Depending on how regularly you are wearing the watch, plan to have your watch serviced at a regular basis which is dependent on the make, model, age and movement of the watch (Automatic Vs Quartz) expert advice is for every 5-10 years.
The cost of getting a watch serviced varies widely depending on the watch and movement and of course how often it has been serviced. For example, Timeless Luxury owner, Simon’s personal watch collection has had servicing ranging from $350 - and in the upper scale, just on $1000 for a 20 year old Omega watch that had NEVER had a service. Servicing your watch is an investment that protects your investment. As the old saying goes, anything worth having is worth looking after, and it’s worth looking after and maintaining your precious timepiece to ensure it’s kept in tip-top condition. Even if you are not regularly wearing a watch in your collection, check that all parts are able to move easily and freely with an occasional service and it will reward you for years to come.
2. Use a reputable technician to carry out services/ repairs
Luxury watches require a specialist's care. Not every jewellery business has specialists that are suitably qualified to work with the delicate machinations of your luxury watch. Make sure you use an authorised technician, and absolutely avoid any DIY efforts. This will only cost you more when things go wrong. To identify a top-quality watch servicing company, look for whether they have the appropriate accreditations, use state-of-the-art equipment and operate in a sterile workplace environment. Check out google reviews. Here at Timeless Luxury we recommend these watch specialists that we have worked with over the years;
Pilbrows Watchmakers (based in Taupo and Christchurch)
Capital Watch Services (based in Wellington)
Low On Time (based in Lower Hutt)
3. Clean and polish
As well as getting your watch professionally serviced, you should also clean your watch as recommended by the brand. If you’re frequently wearing your timepiece, it’s likely coming into contact with sweat, dust, and grime. Of course there is a fine balance, some manufacturers recommend no more than five polishes in a watch’s lifespan, as overpolishing can cause the metal to wear away and, in some cases, change the shape. But there are a few things you can do at home to ensure that special shine.
To preserve your watch’s quality, we recommend using a:
- Microfibre cleaning cloth to dry the watch after washing, remove debris from the bracelet, and clean non-waterproof watches and precious metals.
- There are specialised watch cleaning solutions to clean water-resistant watches, and remove debris from steel bracelets. (WARNING, take care with vintage watches, if in doubt, do not submerge watches in liquid, leave that to your watch technician!)
- Cleaning brush to remove excess dirt or debris (a baby soft toothbrush is ideal for this)
- Watch polishing cloth for a final buff after cleaning.
- Leather ‘restore and revive’ cleaner to enhance the look and preserve the feel of leather straps.
Before you start cleaning your watch, ensure any little screws and crowns are fully tightened.
If the strap is leather, it’ll need special attention and should be removed and cleaned separately from the watch case. Metal straps can get the same treatment as the case, however. Regular cleaning will also prevent metals such as stainless steel and gold from dulling and scuffing over time.
4. Avoid wearing in the water
Although many modern timepieces are water-resistant, with pre-owned luxury watches it's hard to guarantee water resistance. Seals may be old or have been damaged. In fact, even water-resistant watches have their limits. Before going into the water wearing a watch, you can screw down the crown to stop water entering the watch. However, it’s worth noting that chlorine, salt water and hot temperatures can still cause damage.
You can clean water-resistant watches using warm water and a soft cloth. However, if you haven’t serviced or cleaned your watch for a while, the water resistance will no longer be intact due to drying gaskets.
Avoid submerging non-waterproof watches in liquid and instead use a soft, lightly damp cloth and a soft cleaning brush to remove any debris.
5. Avoid magnets and chemicals
Not everyone is aware that magnets can negatively impact the mechanism of your watch, not something you’ve probably considered, but magnets pop up in all sorts of places in everyday life, (even that induction cooktop that you love!), and definitely worth thinking about if you work in a hospital or industrial environment with magnets. Magnetisation is relatively simple to address if you’re noticing problems with your watch’s accuracy, but it does require a trip to the watch technician. Advances in modern technology and modern metals means that there are now watches that are designed to be magnet resistant. The Rolex Milgauss and the Omega Seamaster Railmaster are just two examples of timepieces that make use of this feature.
Chemicals such as perfume, cologne, cleaning agents, are all potentially damaging to watches, both leather and metal straps. Perfume especially can damage leather bands, weakening them and potentially causing it to tear. When spraying perfume or cologne, let it completely dry before placing the watch on your wrist. Your watch should be the last thing you put on when you get ready (before your jacket!).
6. Find suitable storage
When you aren’t wearing your watch, make sure you’ve considered the storage environment. To ensure it doesn’t damage over time, keep your watch facing up in its original case or similar to protect it from dust, moisture and scratches. A lined and cushioned watch case or drawer insert is ideal for watch collectors with multiple timepieces, as it stops them from moving around. Also, if you plan to take your watch on holiday, invest in a travel case.
When choosing the appropriate place for your storage, avoid exposure to direct sunlight, heat and humidity to prevent damage such as colour fading, shortening the battery life and rusting.
We recommend keeping high-value watches in a secure storage unit, such as a locked safe. Don’t forget to safely store the certificate, too, in case you wish to sell the timepiece in the future.
Additionally, if you don’t wear your watch often, check it periodically to make sure no damage has occurred.
7. How to wind your watch
Winding keeps a watch working more effectively and for longer. It’s recommended to wind watches with a manual wound movement once a day at the same time, and when the power reserve is running low.
First, remove the watch from your wrist to avoid placing pressure on and damaging the stern. Hold the watch face up and, using your thumb and index finger, carefully pull out the “crown”. Then, wind the watch clockwise until you feel resistance, but be careful not to overwind it.
Automatic watches don’t require winding as long as they’re worn regularly, as they self-wind when the wearer moves. However, if you don’t wear the watch or move frequently, you may need to wind it occasionally.
8. Avoid the ‘danger zone’
Avoid changing the date on your watch between 9pm and 3am, as the gears are usually in motion between these hours to switch the date overnight. Setting the date during the ‘danger zone’ — within three hours of midnight — can interfere with the mechanisms and cause damage.
9. Wear your watch
It may sound obvious, but watches are made to be worn. So get that fantastic watch on your wrist! Although luxury watches require careful maintenance, they’re designed to last a long time, so wear your timepiece as much as you please! Leaving watches non-operational for long periods can require more regular servicing than if worn often.
However, to preserve the quality and prolong its lifespan, take care when wearing your watch by ensuring it’s fastened securely and ideally avoid wearing it during high-impact activities.
10. Insure your watch
In case anything does go wrong with your prized watch, insure it before wearing it to avoid losing out on the value if it gets broken, lost or stolen. Insurance also provides peace of mind of the knowledge your investment is protected.
Consumer NZ has an excellent article on insuring valuable jewellery here. A ‘valuable articles’ coverage policy could be worthwhile, rather than putting a timepiece under your home insurance policy, as it may not allow for the full value in case of replacement. Often ‘specified items’ on a home insurance policy has a cap on payout. Individual insurers have different rules, so the best course of action is to talk to your insurer first.
Make sure you have good photos and proof of purchases stored somewhere safe (remember receipts can often fade with time, rendering them useless) Ideally you’ll have stored all proof of ownership, photos and certificates digitally (in a cloud based storage, rather than just on a local hard drive of a laptop or desktop) as well in case of fire/flood/earthquake. It's one of those jobs that are a pain to do, but an even bigger pain if you don’t have access to these documents if the worst comes to worst and you have to file a claim.
Plan and Protect
This list is not exhaustive, but a comprehensive list of ideas to think about in protecting your pride and joy. A bit of proactive planning and careful management will really pay off in ensuring that your watch works efficiently for years to come.
How many of these points have you considered in maintaining your timepiece? Let us know in the comments below