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A manual wind watch should be wound up until you feel a drag. A self-winding watch of course runs automatically. However, if it hadn‘t been used for a longer period of time, you should also hand wind it by turning the watch crown 40 turns as a rule. The watch crown doesn‘t need to be turned back and forth but only forward!
Studies have shown that repeated strokes in the vertical direction could lead to long-term damages regarding the cogs and springs in the clockwork. This load occurs at all kinds of sport that require permanent jerky movements of the wrist for example mountainbiking or playing squash and tennis.
A quartz watch usually runs more precisely than a mechanical one. A mechanical watch has a balance spring. It oscillates at a certain frequency between 18.000 and 32.000 half oscillations per hour. Even a perfectly adjusted watch may be inaccurate because of physical influences such as temperature or wearing behaviour. To adjust the watch absolutely perfect, it would have to be exactly adapted to the wearing behaviour of the owner because even temperature and gravity are enough to let the balance spring oscillate slower or faster. The accuracy of your mechanical watch can be influenced by yourself to a certain extent (+/- 3 seconds). When you remove your watch for the night, there are different possibilities to position it. Watchcrown up: the watch runs slower, watchface up or down: it runs faster.
Please avoid using the quick-set funktion between 9 pm and 3 am. The mechanism of the date setting is working at this time and the movement could be damaged. Also avoid turning the hands back across 12 pm.
Most watch manufacturers recommend the maintenance of the watch every 2 to 5 years. We have a different opinion: The maintenance costs a lot of money and should only be performed, if there‘s an essential deviation that cannot be regulated, for example if the watch is extremely slow or fast or the power-reserve reduces greatly. During maintenance work the movement will be cleaned, oiled and wear parts will be changed. There are watches that get along without maintenance for about 20 years. Furthermore manufacturers recommend to send the watch back to them through a jeweller‘s shop. We suggest not to bring it to a jeweller‘s shop but to straightly ask a master watchmaker. Most watches can be repaired by them much more favourable. The prices of the manufacturers often are many times higher.
If you don‘t want to use your watch for a considerable amount of time, you should keep it at a dry place that is sheltered from direct sunlight.
Due to the effect of heat the valuable oil in the watch mechanism could chemically modify so that the smeariness diminishes and the accuracy and the power-reserve declines.
If the watch passed a water resistant test, this feature counts at the date of the measurement. According to DIN 8310 water resistant is not a lasting quality because the gaskets succumb to aging and attrition. After dropping the watch, a concussion or great temperature differences the water resistance must be controlled once again by a watchmaker, especially before water contact. To keep a watch at your wrist while hand washing or showering, it should be tested with at least 3ATM (30m). While swimming the problem isn‘t the water but the rapid change of pressure when you plunge your arm into the water and the associated stroke against the water surface. Also you have to make sure that the watchcrown is withdrawn or screwed.