A well-made watch is engineered to run for decades, but only if it's treated with a level of care that matches its construction. Most damage to fine timepieces isn't caused by dramatic accidents — it's the accumulation of small, avoidable habits over years of ordinary wear.

Water Resistance Isn't a Fixed Guarantee

A watch rated water-resistant when new doesn't stay that way indefinitely — gaskets and seals degrade over time, particularly with exposure to heat, chlorine and saltwater. Having water resistance tested every one to two years, especially before a summer of regular swimming, prevents the single most common cause of internal movement damage.

Magnetism Is the Quiet Threat to Mechanical Movements

Mechanical and automatic movements are vulnerable to magnetic fields from everyday objects — phone cases, laptop speakers, handbag clasps — that can cause a watch to suddenly run fast or stop entirely. Keeping a watch a reasonable distance from these sources, and having it demagnetised by a watchmaker if timekeeping suddenly drifts, resolves an issue many owners misdiagnose as a mechanical fault.

Winding and Storage Matter for Automatics

An automatic watch left unworn for more than a day or two will wind down; storing it in a watch winder maintains the movement's lubrication distribution, while leaving it stopped and unworn for long stretches can allow lubricants to settle unevenly. Manual winds should never be forced past resistance — that resistance is the mechanism telling you it's fully wound.

Servicing on a Schedule, Not Just When Something Breaks

Mechanical movements benefit from a full service roughly every three to five years, regardless of whether any fault is apparent — lubricants degrade gradually and invisibly, and waiting for an obvious problem often means the movement has already suffered avoidable wear.

Everyday Handling

Wipe the case and bracelet with a soft, dry cloth after wear to remove skin oils and product residue, and remove a watch before activities involving repeated impact or heavy water exposure it wasn't designed for. These habits cost nothing and are what separate a timepiece that's still running beautifully in twenty years from one that needed early, avoidable repair.

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