Personalities
3 Mistakes You’re Making with Your Watch
Personalities
3 Mistakes You’re Making with Your Watch
Skipping Servicing
Alright, here we go, let’s get the nagging one out of the way first: the mechanical movement inside your watch is pretty much an engine. Sure, it doesn’t detonate old dinosaur guts to make it go, but there are moving parts inside that rub together, and when things rub together, what do they make? No, not babies: friction.
Friction has many useful properties in day-to-day life. It keeps your car on the road, stops you falling on your behind—but it isn’t always your friend. In a system of parts designed to transfer energy, for example, friction is bad, leaking that energy, converting it into heat—and in the case of your watch movement—little teensy tiny bits of metal.
Not Putting It On A Strap
When you buy a watch with a fantastic bracelet, you want to wear that fantastic bracelet, don’t you? Of course you do, you paid good money for it. I appreciate a good bracelet, too, who doesn’t—but there’s a line: it’s not the be-all and end-all. Sometimes you just a want a bit of hot sauce on your fried chicken, and sometimes you should want to put your watch on a strap, too.
There’s no excuse: a decent strap from a manufacturer like Hirsch can cost less than a cinema ticket, and there are endless variations of colour, style and material to keep your watch looking fresh and, more to the point, feeling fresh—and that’s important.
Neglecting Cleanliness
I’m not naming any names, and I don’t want to put off all you folks who might now be considering buy something pre-loved, but guys, come on—every once in a while, give your watch a clean. I’m talking about the parts that sit up against your wrist all day, getting warm and sweaty, gradually stealing layer after layer of skin and hogging it all in those darkest of corners …
You know what I’m talking about, I don’t need to belabour the point. It’s just a part of being a human, but there’s no need to let it become its own ecosystem. When you put your watch down on the side in the evening and you wake up the morning and its crawled off in the night—that’s too late. You need to get in there much, much earlier.
And not only that, but like the abrasive properties of metal-laden oil in a watch’s movement, that organic paste will no longer be able to get into links and seams and cause irreparable damage of its own. So, for just a few minutes every now and then, you get a number of wonderful benefits—and our watchmakers will be really, really grateful!
There’s not a huge amount you can do wrong with your watch. It’s a hardy technology refined over centuries, but that doesn’t mean a little bit of a love and attention from time to time will go amiss. Make sure you’re using it, enjoying it, taking care of it—appreciating it. If you are lucky enough to have the ability to purchase such a thing, do me a favour and avoid the biggest mistake of all—make sure you appreciate that privilege to its fullest. We’re very fortunate to have it.