How should watch accessories be cared for?

It is easy to buy watches and difficult to maintain watch accessories, have you ever felt the same way when you have worn a mechanical watch for some time?

Winter has passed, north and south of the watch friends and face different maintenance problems, southern friends to continue to cope with high temperature sweating caused by the belt becomes hard and brittle, and northern friends have to face the temperature difference between day and night continues to increase, resulting in the watch inside the problem of water vapor.

One to the change of season watch is prone to a little trouble, send to maintenance for fear of breaking the bank, their own maintenance and will not, this time to learn a little daily maintenance methods, it seems very important.

Today we will teach you some watch maintenance tips, at home can easily operate, help you save a maintenance money!

watch accessories case and mirror maintenance

The watch case and watch mirror are the important protection parts of the dial and movement, and they are also the parts of the watch that are in direct contact with the outside world.

Under the mixed effect of dust, sweat, and rain for a long time, the color of the case metal will become black, and the gap between the case and the watch mirror will also hide dirt.

To solve these problems, we usually need to use a soft cloth coated with detergent to wipe regularly, and the crevices that are not easy to clean can be cleaned with a small brush of moderate hardness and softness to clean the dirt.

watch accessories Leather strap care

1. Avoid prolonged sunlight mapping, which will make the strap appearance color decoloration, but also accelerate the aging of the strap leather, some chemical test drugs will also make the strap appearance color change or decoloration.
2. The most taboo of the leather strap is water, long time immersed in water, the leather strap immediately becomes hard and brittle, also covers the human sweat. So can’t wear a leather strap watch for snorkeling (or long-time contact with water things), long-time sweat beads dip compost, and also can make the leather strap shock change flavor.
3. For The cleaning of the leather strap, you can use a moist soft cloth to gently wipe the belt and then put it in a light-avoiding ventilated place to dry. Every 1-2 months, use the leather strap protector to wipe the strap and then use the maintenance agent to wipe the surface, not only to maintain the texture of the leather strap but also to enhance the brightness.

Recommendations for daily maintenance of watch leather straps

Sweat and dirt sticking in the gap between the case and the strap for a long time will cause oxidation, corrosion, or rusting of the watch, especially the waterproof parts will be damaged and lead to poor waterproofing. So the case and metal strap need to be cleaned regularly, an available soft bristle brush, a low concentration of soapy water, and finally cleaned with water or a damp cloth, and then wiped dry. Or go to a professional leather repair service center for appearance cleaning.

watch accessories Care of the crown

The Crown is an important part of the watch, I believe most people have no concept of the maintenance of the crown, but the watch accidentally into the water, basically from the position of the crown penetration.

At the same time the pointer for winding, pulling out rotating, and other kinds of tuning when the number of times frequently, but also easy to causes the sealing rubber ring to age and wear faster, in general, the smaller the crown the more bad operation, especially in the winding time, feel inconvenient.

But stainless steel and larger crowns, both in terms of use and lifetime are relatively good. Now to ensure and extend the sealing and waterproof performance of the crown, some watches will be outside the O-ring inside the crown, plus a steel wire hoop.

For general gold-plated watches, it is recommended to apply a little transparent nail polish to the surface, which can effectively reduce the friction and contact between the crown and wrist skin. Or you can add a little silicone oil between the crown and the case shank head tube, which is also an effective way to guarantee lubrication and waterproof performance. If the crown is made of stainless steel, it does not need any deliberate attention.

watch accessories Maintenance of the movement

The watch movement is the core component of the watch, and its running accuracy, life, and stability are all related to the maintenance of the movement. The following are the maintenance methods for watch accessories movements:

Regular cleaning of the movement

Cleaning and lubricating oil injection of a watch movement are referred to as “oil washing”, which is a very important work in watch accessories repair.

The purpose of oil washing is to keep the watch parts clean and the necessary lubrication of the parts, to ensure the precision of the parts of the watch machine, to improve the accuracy of the watch accessories machine, and to prolong the service life of the watch machine.

Watch movement will produce dust and dirt during long-term use, which will affect the running precision and life of the movement. Therefore, regular cleaning of the movement is very necessary. Generally speaking, movement cleaning is divided into two types: mechanical cleaning and chemical cleaning.

Mechanical cleaning is by using professional mechanical tools, such as brushes, cotton swabs, etc., to gently wipe the movement parts to remove dust and dirt; chemical cleaning is by using professional cleaning agents, soaking the movement parts in cleaning agents to remove dirt and grease.

Replacement of movement lubricant

Watch movement will produce wear and friction during operation, and lubricant can reduce these wear and friction and prolong the life of the movement. Therefore, it is very important to change the movement lubricant regularly.

Generally speaking, movement lubricants are divided into two types: solid lubricants and liquid lubricants. Solid lubricant is grease applied on the surface of the movement parts, which can protect the movement for a long time; liquid lubricant is added to the movement by dropping, which can quickly penetrate the interior of the movement parts and play a lubricating role.

Under normal circumstances, the general watch machine needs to be washed once after two years of use. The oil washing work should be carried out at the same time as the adjustment and repair of the parts. In addition, when checking the malfunction of the watch machine, if the following problems are found, it is also necessary to carry out the oil washing work of the watch accessories machine:

1、The lubricating oil in the movement is dry or sticky, which will increase the resistance of the movement of the machine parts and make the watch not accurate;
2, the table machine lubricating oil is too much, which will cause the oil around the overflow, contamination of the machine parts, especially contamination of the escapement speed regulating mechanism, so that the table stops walking or is significantly inaccurate;
3, the movement into foreign matter, such as dust particles, metal particles, fiber fines, etc., which will cause the table machine transmission mechanism to be blocked, so that the table is not allowed to go or even stop;

4. Rusting of machine parts, which is caused by the users’ lack of common sense to protect the watch or the influence of the use environment (such as an underwater or high-altitude operation), as well as due to the poor sealing performance of the watch case, it will make the timer go out of order or stop.

Then after oil washing, the watch reaches the following effects indicating the success of oil washing.

1. The watch case and body are clean and free from old oil marks, dust, and fingerprints;
2. The body is installed correctly, for example screws are tight, three needles are installed correctly, gears mesh normally, axial and radial clearance is qualified, the escapement regulating mechanism works normally, the hairspring flat roundness is good, and balance wheel does not oscillate, and so on;
3. The amount of refueling is appropriate, the positions that should be refueled have oil, and the positions that should not be refueled ensure that there is no oil;
4. The pendulum reaches 120° in two handfuls of strength, the pendulum reaches 270°-300° in full strips, and pendulum is not less than 180° in half-full strips (i.e. after 24 hours) when it is put in a standing position;
5. The daily error is not greater than 45 seconds.

Check the movement parts

The watch movement is composed of many small parts, and the integrity and precision of these parts will affect the running effect of the movement.

Therefore, it is very necessary to check the movement parts regularly. Generally speaking, the inspection of movement parts includes shaft holes, gears, escapement, hairspring, etc.

During inspection, if damaged or deformed parts are found, they should be replaced and repaired promptly.

Regular Winding

When a mechanical watch is in a static state for a long time, the oil may become dry and sticky, leading to a decrease in lubrication effect, and the internal parts of the movement may rust, which in turn affects the service life of the mechanical watch.

Therefore, if your watch has not worn for a long time, first of all, you should store it in a dry watch box, the humid environment will also lead to oxidization and deterioration of the machine oil; then take it out and wind it up regularly once or twice a month to maintain a certain amount of kinetic energy, so that the internal gears can run normally.

Anti-magnetization and demagnetization of watch accessories

I don’t know how many watch friends have experienced the matter of watch accessories being magnetized. They may usually take good care of their watches, but occasionally they don’t pay attention to it and put their watches in the vicinity of electric mahjong tables or microwave ovens and other electric appliances with strong magnetic fields, which directly leads to inaccurate timekeeping and stopping of the watches.

watch accessories demagnetization method is also very simple, not necessarily have to go to the maintenance agency for demagnetization, you can also prepare a demagnetizer, by the instructions for use of the watch accessories on the demagnetization, demagnetization can be put on a compass on the side of the watch after the demagnetization, if the compass needle does not have a significant vibration, it shows that the demagnetization is complete.

But watch accessories demagnetization should not be used frequently, which will affect the service life of the watch, so usually pay attention to let the watch away from the strong magnetic field environment, as far as possible to prevent the watch from being magnetized more reliably.