Post #1832623 · Elektrine

2026-04-15 11:19 UTC

Mechanical watches require maintenance. They have lubricants in them that deteriorate over time and have to be replenished. They're also far more likely to break from shocks or magnetic fields. Mechanical watch repair and maintenance has to be done by experienced experts and their services are neither cheap or easy to find locally depending on where you live. In comparison, changing a battery in a quartz watch costs spare change and you'll likely find a service that can do it in any town or city. Many mechanical watch owners are ok with this but many aren't aware in the first place and face a very unpleasant surprise when their "eternal" watch suddenly halts after 5 years of no maintenance.. Please, if you intend to get a mechanical watch do your own research on how much maintenance is gonna cost, how often you'll have to have it done and where you can have it done. Be aware that these are things you're signing up for with a purchase like this.

Replies (3)

@njion@bark.lgbt 2026-04-15 11:46

If you simply want a watch that will keep going for as long as possible without any need for interference with its insides, there are certain types of quartz watches that fulfill that purpose much better than automatic mechanical watches. Solar quartz watches use sunlight to power the watch and charge a battery that acts as a power reserve for when it's dark. The solar cells and batteries on these watches can last over a decade without any need for maintenance. Some of them even come with extra features that make them even more "set and forget", made possible thanks to the extra power from the solar cells. Many Casio watches can automatically sync with an atomic clock via radio or Bluetooth. Seiko has a line of watches that accomplish the same thing using GPS practically anywhere in the world. Citizen has solar watches with ultra high frequency crystals that keep nearly perfect time for years without a need to sync to anything. These technologies are not exclusive to the respective brands mentioned above, they just set the gold standard. Casio also has a line of digital watches with regular batteries guaranteed to last over 10 years. Some of them even come with the aforementioned radio syncing capabilities. Digital watches in general can run without a battery change for many many years because they use so little power. In conclusion, if you want longevity first and foremost solar watches are the best solution on the market at the moment. They require maintenance less often than mechanical watches, they're more resilient to shocks, magnetic fields etc. and they're far more accurate, especially the models that sync to atomic clocks. That said, all watches require maintenance eventually. Solar cells die, gaskets fail, high capacity batteries eventually run out. Around 10-15 years of servicing-free operation is about as good as you're gonna get.

Open ##1832624
@adingbatponder@fosstodon.org 2026-04-15 12:52

@njion Yup. If you buy one for a few hundred euros then to keep it working I had to pay about 100 euros every 2 years to keep it running OK and eventually gave up on it and got a casio F-91W .... wow.. what a watch.. it tells the time for ever.

Open ##1832633
@Owlor@meow.social 2026-04-15 12:53

@njion It kind of sounds like it's something people should keep in mind when buying watches as presents for other people, like you are signing them up to get maintenance if they want to keep using the watch. Which is maybe not a super-major issue if you're just buying a watch as an expensive gesture and it's up to them what they want to do with it, but it definitely sounds worth keeping in mind.

Open ##1832634