basic oiling of movement?

[db1]

Hi,

i have been at my local watchsmith place two days ago, i came for replacing battery for my dad's Certina..

anyway, i had been talking to him about mechanical watches, and asked him if he do servicing and\or oiling of movements.

he said "sure", so i asked him what movement oiling includs? he said, that he open the case back, clean dust and dirt from movement parts, and oiling a few important spots of the movement. and he said thats enough as long as the movement were running smooth and just came in for a basic maintanancing job.

wanted to ask, does basic oiling and cleaning of movement is enough for a smooth working movement?

as much as i'm aware, only FULL servicing, including full disassembling & oiling of a movement can give me any achievement in form of performance and loyality of the movement.

any help will be appreciated

thanks!

Edited February 16, 2008 by db1

[Toadtorrent]

Full servicing with complete breakdown is what should be done if you want real reliability with your movement. According to the Master, this should be done about every 5 years.

Some watches (namely Asian 7750's) should be serviced completely as they are usually installed "dry" and dirty, and only a full cleaning will ensure things run smoothly.

If you go for the easy superficial lube, you may well be alright...it depends on the condition of your movement. This may well result in having to replace parts prematurely however, because something got missed...and result in greater cost than desired...especially if it's a genuine movement.

Figure out your pricepoint you're willing to walk down. On a cheap $100 Noob watch, a full servicing probably isn't worth it on an inconsistent quality $10 movement...let it run until it dies, and then replace the movement (~$50) with a Miyota which is a cheap bombproof one (~$20) and you will then be good for a number of years.