If you notice your mechanical watch is running too quickly it may be because it has been magnetized. This can occur if your watch is too close to an object with a magnetic field that its movement cannot withstand. The magnetic field emitted by such an object may affect parts in the watch that regulate the timing, preventing it from displaying the time accurately. Magnetism can occur gradually with repeated exposure to small magnetic items usually causing minor damage. That being said, solving this issue can be quick and easy however, when greater damage is caused, the process can be more complicated. In day-to-day life, objects that may have this effect on your timepiece can be your cell phone or laptop and, if you’re travelling, the magnetic field from an airplane can cause this too.

Newer watch models have become more equipped to resist magnetism. Recent Rolex or Hublot models can resist the magnetic fields we may pass through every day while other watches, such as those containing the Omega Master Co-Axial movement, have a sillicium hairspring that cannot be affected by magnetic fields of even 15 000 gauss. This is a magnetic field strength thousands of times higher than one would usually be exposed to in daily life, making the aforementioned movement, as well as others containing silicon escapements, virtually anti-magnetic.

Setting the time on your watch is a simple task however it is essential to learn how to set it and what the right way is to do it.

Setting your watch and how frequently you may have to set it depends on whether your watch has a quartz movement (battery powered) or a mechanical movement (powered by movement). If it is the latter, it is also dependent on how often you wear your watch.

Firstly, if you own a quartz watch, you will have to set your time once for every battery, as the watch will always keep time for as long as the battery has power. Once it replaced however, you will have to reset it.

An automatic watch on the other hand, keeps time due to movement. Therefore, when you first receive the watch after it has not been worn and thus has not been moving, you must wind it before setting it. Moreover, if you have not worn your automatic watch for a few days, you must also wind it and reset it again.

Lastly, a manual watch runs solely on manually winding the watch therefor you would have to wind it once a day. This type of movement is more rarely seen however this means that you will have to reset the time whenever it hasn’t been fully wound and the watch stops.

The process of actually setting the time is the same across both quartz and mechanical watches.

The first step is pulling out the crown. Some watches have a screw down crown. In this case, you must unscrew its crown first and then pull out it out once. If your watch doesn’t have a date display you may proceed to set the hands to the right position.

If the piece does have a date display, you must pull the crown out slightly, to the first position, which controls the date disc. You must then set the watch to the previous day’s date. Afterwards, you may pull the crown out further, to the second position. This position of the crown allows you to control the hands of the watch. At this point, you may keep turning the crown, moving the time forward until the date changes to the current day’s date. This thus indicates that you are within the first 12 hours of the day and from here, you can ensure you are properly setting the time. If you skip this step, you may be setting the time to 6:30 in the afternoon for example, rather than 6:30 in the morning, which would then cause the date to switch too early. If the time at which you are setting the watch is before noon, you can proceed to set the hands to the correct time. If is after noon, you must turn the hour hand once around the dial from, starting from the 12 o’clock mark, in order to ensure that your watch is in the second 12 hours of the day.

A common question asked at the repair desk and even whilst buying a watch is whether a watch is waterproof or not. In the watch making industry, it is almost impossible for a watch to be waterproof as it implies that there is no means of water getting into a movement. Instead, watches can be deemed as water-resistant which means that it is made more difficult for water to get into the movement.

The depth that is indicated on the watch or in its description tells you how far under water you can go until the watch cannot withstand the water pressure it is facing. After that point, water can enter the watch. Diving watches are made to withstand very high pressures for this very reason; the cases are built to protect the movement and make them more water resistant.

The most common reason why watches actually face water damage however is because of the improper closure of the crown. If the crown is not properly secured, it will allow water to enter the movement.

Mechanical watches are watches powered by kinetic energy, meaning that movement is what keeps it running. There are two types of mechanical watches, manual and automatic.

Automatic watches are more common in the watchmaking industry today. They are powered by an oscillating weight, typically located at the back of the movement. While wearing the timepiece, this weight spins and provides the energy for the watch to keep time. That being said, the watch should keep running for as long as you’re wearing it and typically it will continue to keep time after not wearing it for around 40 hours, depending on the watch’s power reserve. Over this time period, the power supply of the movement will run out and you will need to wind the watch using the crown to refill this supply completely before wearing it again. If you find yourself setting your watch aside frequently, a winding box can be used to prevent the watch’s power reserve from depleting, thus keeping it from stopping and having to reset it at each use.

Manual wind watches must typically be wound daily as their movements do not include oscillating weights. The winding of the crown powers the watch and fills up its power reserve completely. In order to do so for both automatic and manual watches, turn the crown clockwise, about 30 to 40 times.