Whether it’s a watch from your vintage luxury collection or one of your daily wears, you need it for a longer run. While the internet is full of “choose a watch” articles, here in this guide you’ll be guided on storing and maintaining your watch.
1. Get storage right
Enemies of your watches – humidity and dampness can ruin dials and result in movement’s rustiness. Thus, one should store his/her timepieces in dry environments. In addition to temperature-controlled conditions, watches should be put away from light. However, to one’s surprise, unusual aging may add to their value. Some black dials may turn into chocolate brown or tropical tones; based on the brand, its model and feel, these dials may be valued far more than black ones.
2. Get the valuable pieces insured
Watches are small and liquid assets; thus they are more vulnerable to be stolen. Considering this, many people keep their collections in bank safes and vaults.
For those unfortunate times when your watch gets stolen, keep a record of serial numbers and pictures of your timepieces to share with insurance agencies and authorities. You can submit this record and police reports of watch robberies directly to the relevant watch company. So in cases when your timepiece comes to them for service, they will return it to you.
Also, there are websites and groups where you can submit information on your stolen watch with a serial number. Potential buyers who usually search for a watch’s serial number will be able to find out if it has been stolen.
3. Service regularly
Make it a custom to get your watch serviced every few years by a legitimate expert. Usually, specialists advise servicing of frequently-worn watches every 3 to 5 years. If you keep a watch carefully and wear it only a few times a year, it will not have to be serviced on regular basis. However, more complex gadgets, for example, chronographs and minute repeaters, might need more continuous and comprehensive scrutiny if worn regularly.
4. Talk to your watchmaker
It is important that you keep an open communication with the watchmaker or the company servicing it. You must let them know if you wouldn’t want any aesthetic alterations or the watch polished. This is important to make sure that the piece’s worth is not damaged after servicing.
5. Maintain dials and bezels
As a matter of truth, most of the watch’s value dwells in the dial. So it is actually imperative that these be kept original if possible. Watches dated back from the times of 1930 to 1950s mostly came with dials painted with radium for iridescence – if they are dispatched back to Switzerland for service, the watch company will be unable to legitimately re-trade them. In fact, with specific brands, the only possible way to recover your watch with its original radium on the dial is to travel all the way to Switzerland and get it yourself. Detaching the radium material can essentially decrease a watch’s worth and the same applies for changing bezels and crowns.
