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Whether you’re talking about a car, a watch or a home, you need to take care of the things you own if you want them to last a long time. This is particularly important when you’re talking about expensive items like watches, plus there are a lot of things you can do to help keep your watch in better condition. If you’re looking for tips on taking care of your watch so you don’t have to shell out money for watch repair in Castle Rock, CO, or a replacement watch anytime soon, we’ve got all the tips you need right here.
Winding Your Watch
While it might not seem like the most complicated part of watch maintenance, improper winding of a watch is one of the most common reasons people come to us in need of watch repair. If you don’t wind your watch correctly, you could end up damaging the movement.
The first step to making sure you’re winding your watch properly is taking it off before you wind it. Winding your watch while it’s on your wrist means you have to wind it at a weird angle that puts stress on the winding stem. The next thing you want to do is make sure you aren’t over winding your watch. It can be tempting to keep winding when you start to feel a little bit of resistance, but the most likely outcome of that is having to pay for watch repair. The winding stem is delicate, so you shouldn’t overwork it. You should wind your watch every day if you want to keep it in good shape at all times.
Another key to proper winding is making sure you aren’t manually winding an automatic watch. Some watches are equipped with an automatic winding function that winds the watch as you wear it, which means you don’t have to wind your watch every day. As a matter of fact, we see a lot of automatic watches that people wind too much at our Castle Rock, CO, watch repair shop.
Setting the Time
Setting the date and time on your watch seems like it would be a simple process that you basically couldn’t mess up, but that’s far from the case. While there isn’t a whole lot you need to know to set the date and time on your watch, knowing what you should and shouldn’t do could save you a trip to a watch repair shop.
The biggest thing you need to remember when you’re setting the date and time on your watch is not to set your watch when its time reads between 9 pm and 2 am. During this time, the date-changing mechanism engages the gear train, so you risk serious damage if you set the date or time at this point. This might not seem like it would be a big problem, but damages caused by setting the date and time between 9 pm and 2 am are some of the most costly watch repairs.
Another thing you should do is move the time forward rather than backward when setting your watch. This is another way to make sure you aren’t damaging your date-changing mechanism. However, you don’t need to worry about any of this if your watch doesn’t display the date.
What to Avoid
When it comes to keeping your watch in good shape and avoiding paying for watch repair, one of the best things you can do is avoid things that can shorten the lifespan of your watch.
There are three things you need to keep in mind when it comes to what damages your watch: water, physical shock and magnetism. The water part is pretty straightforward, although you may have more or less leeway depending on the water resistance rating of your watch. Physical shock can be avoided by taking your watch off when you’re doing activities where that’s a risk, such as golfing, chopping firewood or hammering in nails.
Magnetism is a little tricky because it’s harder to avoid, but the bottom line is magnets make your watch run a lot faster than it should. To make matters even more difficult, there are magnets all over your home, including in devices like TVs and iPads. If you want to avoid having to take your watch to a watch repair shop in Castle Rock, CO, keep it away from magnets.
Watch Maintenance
The best thing you can do if you want your watch to last a long time is keep up with routine maintenance. While watch maintenance isn’t particularly complicated, you can always take your watch to a Castle Rock, CO, watch repair expert to have them maintain it every once in a while.
One thing every watch owner should have is a good polishing kit to keep their watch looking good. Polishing your watch isn’t just important when it comes to making it shine and sparkle, it’s also an important factor in preventing wear and tear. You might want to talk to a watch expert to figure out which type of polishing kit you should choose.
Every few years, you should take your watch to a professional to have it cleaned and maintained. Your skin tends to get watches dirty fairly quickly, and there are a lot of parts that need to lubricated and cleaned a bit to keep things running smoothly.
Let Us Help
It’s no secret that taking care of things helps them last longer, but that doesn’t mean it’s always easy. When it comes to watch maintenance, a lot of people don’t know what they should and shouldn’t do to avoid spending a fortune on watch repair.
The good news is, Matheu’s Fine Watches is here to help. If you need a watch fixed or maintained in the Castle Rock, CO, area, we can take care of it with ease. To find out more about maintaining your watch and making sure it lasts longer, give us a call at (970) 453-8463 today.
