Recently, a customer requested watch repair.
This time it was an overhaul, and upon inspection of the interior, we found that the machine oil had dried up due to the effects of humidity.
As I've written in previous blog posts,
one of the things to be careful about with wristwatches is humidity.
Many people are careful not to get water directly on vintage watches, regardless of their water resistance,
but the humidity on rainy days during the rainy season or summer is extremely high,
so we recommend refraining from wearing your watch on very humid days if possible.
During this season, humidity can exceed 80% on some days, and laundry hung outside hardly dries.
In other words, days with high humidity are almost like being submerged in water.
In such conditions, it's akin to directly exposing your wristwatch to water,
so one option is to not wear it if you know it's going to rain.
The effect of humidity on a watch is that the machine oil becomes more susceptible to dissolving,
and then when the watch's interior dries on a dry day, it can cause the machine oil to deplete.
Furthermore, moisture accumulated inside the watch case adheres to each part,
leading to rust over time.
Since humidity is invisible, like magnetism, all you can do is "be careful."
During an overhaul, we perform rust removal and demagnetization of the movement in both cases,
but humidity especially requires caution to prevent wear on parts.
Of course, we will repair any watch you purchase from us with the utmost care, as much as possible.
However, there are limits, so please be mindful of humidity in your daily life!
