how to care for watches

Watch Care: How to Clean and Maintain Your Watch

An 18K rose gold Cartier Women's Santos Watch with a diamond bezel.

A watch is an object of exceptional complication and beauty that requires regular care to work properly. Standard maintenance includes safeguarding the movement, protecting the watch from water damage and cleaning the case and band. The following tips will help you care for and preserve your timepieces for generations to come:

How to care for watches with a manual mechanical movement
For watches with a manual (or hand-wound) mechanical movement, be sure to wind the watch once a day, at the same time of day. Be careful not to over-wind the watch. Stop winding the watch as soon as you feel resistance---this indicates the spring has reached maximum tension.

How to care for watches with an automatic movement
If you own a watch with automatic (or self-winding) mechanical movements, be sure to wind the watch once every two weeks if it is worn daily. Wind the watch twice weekly if it is not worn daily.

How to care for watches with quartz movements
If your watch has a quartz movement, you should remove worn batteries and replace them every few years, according to Eli Katz, president of Ashford.com, the leading online retailer of luxury watches. When wearing your watch, it is very important to avoid equipment that create a strong magnetic field, such as speakers, mobile phones and metal detectors. Extreme temperature changes and humid environments, such as showers, hot tubs and saunas, can be harmful for your watch. Damage can also be caused by violent shocks such as dropping the watch as well as activities that require repetitive arm motion (unless the watch was designed for it). Exposure to these risks can negatively affect the movement performance.

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