A Complete Guide to Maintaining Your Luxury Watch

A luxury watch is more than just an instrument telling time. It’s a statement. One of style and status. A mastery of craft and engineering, it tells your story and holds a legacy.

Here is a complete guide to safeguarding your watch and giving it the care that it needs.

Read the Manual

With every luxury watch comes a manual. The first step to maintaining and protecting your watch is to consider this as your bible and follow it to the T.

Regular Cleaning

A watch’s greatest enemy is dust. Regular visits to a reputable jeweler or someone who specializes in cleaning watches should be a part of your calendar. Dirt could collect around the crown and enter into the case. This issue might also present itself for manual winding watches where the dirt builds in the gasket, resulting in it grinding against the case tube. This build-up of dust and dirt brings into being a higher risk of water penetration and damage.

Avoid Exposure to Magnetic Fields  

A watch is a very delicate instrument in terms of it’s internal mechanics which are unfavorably affected by magnetic fields. The influx of electronic devices these days poses a greater risk since they are constantly around us and have the potential to magnetize the watches, causing substantial damage. This can change the pace of the watch, causing it to either slow down or to run much faster.

A suitable way to test if your watch has been magnetized, is to keep it next to a compass and check if the needle of the compass shifts. If your result is in the affirmative, you need to get your watch serviced and demagnetized.

Appropriate Storage Practice

When not in use, a luxury watch must be stored right to avoid damage. An ideal place would be one that is dry and one which does not receive direct sunlight, preferably a special watch box which provides cushion to prevent scratches. Before putting it away, cleaning it properly with a microfiber cloth to remove any dirt that may have accumulated will go a long way in protecting your watch. One thing to be particularly watchful of is that the crown of the watch is not left open which will allow the entry of pollutants while in storage.

Limit Water and Sun Exposure

Most luxury watches today are water resistant. However, it’s still considered best practice to limit the amount of water touching yours for a longer life span. Watches with leather bands have to be especially far from water since the water will deteriorate the leather. Prolonged exposure to direct sunlight too can reduce battery life and fade the color of the watch.

Regular servicing from a certified watch service center is paramount to preserve your luxury watch. A thorough following of these steps will help retain it’s original look and feel and keep it as good as new, just the way it’s supposed to be.