CARE OF THE MODERN WATCH

Evening Star, Issue 21640, 8 February 1934, Page 12

CARE OF THE MODERN WATCH

A FAITHFUL FRIEND In its very confined space the modern watch is dijferent from its predecessors, the heavy old hunter and repeater watches. While the watch of to-day should be more carefully treated than its predecessor, in many instances it receives scant courtesy. A really reliable watch is a iaituful friend, but tor a wateli to serve one well it must be treated kindly, and it has been proved beyond doubt that the reason some watches ao not function well is that they do not receive that care and attention wliicu so delicate a piece of mechanism demands. Tne average watch is composed of 15'J different pieces, involving over 2,400 separate operations in its manufacture. The balance has 18,000 beats or vibrations an hour, live beats to the second, 12,960,000 iu 30 days, 157,680,000 in one year. It travels 1.45 in with each vibration, which is equal to nearly ten miles in 24 hours. The watch has the smallest screws in the world, which to the naked eye look like dust. Some have 260 threads to the inch and measure four-thousandths of an inch in diameter r.nd have a double head. An ordinary thimble would hold 100,000. These calculations are based on 18,000 vibrations of the balance in an hour. In some watches there are as many as 21,000 vibrations to the hour. Watchmakers the world over agree that a lot of the trouble with watches nowadays is due to the fact that their owners do not wind them sufficiently. Owners should be careful to wind their watches to the full extent. They should not count the number of turns, but should wind until a very definite stop is felt and they arcsure they can wind no more. Generally speaking, it would take very strong fingers to break a mainspring by winning too much, and the fingers would suffer before any damage was done to the watch itself. The watch should always be wound in the morning. The mainspring is then at its strongest, and the action of the watch is at its best during the day, when the watch is being moved about. At night the watch should rest comfortably, the same as its owner. The ideal position for a watch is fiat on its back, dial up, not even slightlv tilting. When not in wear the watch should be given a rest, and not hung up or allowed to be at an angle. A watch cannot bo expected to work accurately unless it is oiled periodically, any more than a human being can be expectell to carry on without food. An owner of a car, unless he were very unwise, would never think of taking a car out without a. sufficiently supply of oil. This same attention should not be denied to the watch. The amount of oil used in a lady’s watch is so small it cannot last more than six to eight months. Watches will, rf course, run on after the oil has dried, but the parts will be injured for precise time-keepers. Unfortunately a watch caiujot be oiled bv squirting in a little oil from an oil caii. Watches must be taken entirely to pieces, the congealed oil and dirt removed, and all the parts thoroughly cleaned and leoiled when assembled. This requires the attention of an experienced watchmaker, and consequently costs money, but money spent on having a -watch repaired well is money well spent. There are more watches spoilt by incompetent workmen than actually wear out. Warm air expands, ami therefore, as the watch becomes warm when worn or carried in the pocket, a certain amount of the air inside the watch exudes from the ease. When the; watch cools air is drawn into the ease, and with it possibly dirt. In fact, watches practically breathe. The aver-

age watch is not airtight, although measures are constantly being taken towards this end. Some people say they cannot wear a watch, but no definite reason can be advanced to support this theory. Generally speaking, such people are endeavouring (o wear a watch which, from its condition, could not be worn satisfactorily by anyone, or is not wound sufficiently. No person is so surcharged with that elusive pro perty “ personal magnetism ” that he cr she could influence a compass. The greater part of the mechanism of a watch is of brass and steel, and cannot be affected by this so-called human magnetism. Summing up, there are three conditions that will enable anyone to wear a watch satisfactorily: the quality of the watch must be good, the movement maintained in good order, and reasonable care must be taken when it is worn,—‘ The Times.’