Cleanings (COA)
Assuming that accuracy is the goal, every single component in an antique watch needs to be correct and functioning properly, so COAs (clean, oil and adjust) only apply to those watches that need nothing beyond an oil change and simple maintenance.
Trust us with your treasured family heirloom for thorough and expert cleanings that will take just a few days.
Take Care Of It
If you carry your watches, then routine servicing is actually pretty important. Antique timepieces can get loaded with debris like lint, dust, metal filings, dead skin, and even hair, especially if the design is a bridge or 3/4-plate, allowing all that detritus to fall into the movement and gear train. Save yourself headaches and high repair bills down the road and have them cleaned regularly every four or five years.
What's Involved
Complete Disassembly
The only way to do a proper COA is to completely disassemble the movement so it can be cleaned in solution using an ultrasonic bath. Inspection of all parts comes before reassembly with synthetic oils, followed by checks on the balance wheel, mainspring and gear train, and finally, accuracy testing on the digital master.
It can take days to identify and correct all of the issues found in these antiques, so anyone who "cleans" a watch for $55 is simply dunking the still-assembled movement in solution and oiling the pivots externally.
Changing the Oil
Organic and synthetic oils both start getting gummy after only a few years, requiring periodic maintenance, and running your watch beyond the service life of the lubricants will begin grinding up the pivots. You wouldn't go years without changing the oil in your car's engine, so why do it to your great-grandfather's watch?
The oils in your watch can deteriorate to something like paste, causing it to eventually stall. Scroll down to see how often to have it changed.
Ruining the Pivots
Once the lubricants in your watch become contaminated with grit the pivots will begin to scar, eventually grinding waists into them. This is especially true of the gear train components that rotate faster than the others, such as the pallet fork and the balance staff, and if the scarring is too deep they must be replaced or re-staffed.
The red arrow in this photo is pointing to a deep waist in one of the gear train pivots, caused by sludge buildup. This wheel is now ruined.
Hidden Problems
COAs are not just about changing the oils. It also means examining each and every component not only for correct fit, but for hidden issues like nascent rust, stripped screws, loose jewels, loose curb or banking pins, oval bushings, bent or scarred pivots, rub marks, bent or binding teeth in the gear train, intentional damage such as cheap "fixes", and so on.
Rust has begun to corrode the 4th wheel pinion in this photo. Anybody who claims to clean a watch without taking it apart would not see this.
Timing and Accuracy
After it's been thoroughly cleaned and all the issues have been identified and corrected, the movement is reassembled and the timing process begins, which can take hours to get to or better than factory original. Find out how your watch should perform after years of service.
How Often?
How often should your watch be cleaned? It depends largely on how it's used, but all lubricants have limited shelf lives.
If it's been decades since your watch was last serviced, then it needs to be properly cleaned - even before you wind it - to avoid damage.
Organic Oils
These were culled from natural sources like shark livers and would stay viscous for a very long time, but they tended to migrate out of the jewel cups and stained the plates. Organics can easily go for five or six years in between oil changes if carrying and longer if the watch sits under glass.
Synthetic Oils
We use synthetics because they won't discolor over time and don't migrate as easily. They stay viscous if the watch is being run regularly but will thicken much faster if the watch sits on display, so figure three or four years between servicing, or if the watch slows down.
Clean Enough?
There are plenty of collectors who insist that their pocket watch is "clean enough", either because they did it themselves or because they sent it to a jeweler somewhere. In simple horological terms, cleanliness is a binary thing - it's either clean or it's not.
Look at this center jewel from a watch that the customer serviced at home and ask yourself if this piece has been cleaned properly.
Do it right, have it done right, or don't do it all.
Ignoring the Maintenance
Other than the obvious problems caused by running your watch for years beyond its last service date, filthy watches will contaminate the cleaning fluids in any ultrasonic that much faster. This requires fluid changes more frequently and the cleaning of the baskets, and watches in this condition don't help keep the bench or the tools any cleaner.
Watches this dirty will incur a surcharge to offset these costs.
Spraying the Plates
There are those hacks that will open the back of a non-running watch and simply spray the entire movement with WD-40 or a penetrating oil like Liquid Wrench to try to get it running again. Such attempts are incredibly dumb, since some of these products will eradicate the gilding from plates with a two-tone finish. This practice will also contaminate the ultrasonic, requiring another fluid change.
Watches this greasy will incur a surcharge to offset these costs.
Restoration Highlights
One of the rarest of all Waltham dials - the coveted red guilloche with fancy hands, fronting a Model '88.