I've been getting asked this a lot lately, so here it is....
In this 21st century world of instant gratification, tech hacks, life hacks, shortcuts and DIY, let me present:
Watchmaking.
A quaint old trade, you might think. Must be almost dead, like blacksmithing.
Absolutely not.
Millions and millions of mechanical watches are produced every year, and watchmakers service them. That's how it works, and it has been like this for a very long time. (Numbers have varied, obviously)
I do not share the view that phones and tech replace the watch. Or the clock, for that matter. Sure, I can set my phone to wake me up or look at it to see what time it is, but that means it's handy enough to just grab and look. (Which in my case, it isn't. I no longer carry my phone in my pocket after seeing what it did to a solid metal Rolex movement. See the cell phone blog post)
As long as it's charged up and all, and this goes for the Apple watch also.
Now I'm no Luddite, but I certainly do admire the craftsmanship of antiques and well made mechanical devices, like watches. My automatic chronometer on my wrist tells me what time it is, and I don't have to wind it. I take it off at night and put it on in the morning, pretty simple, pretty green tech.
Vintage watches, which we specialize in, require proper care and maintenance, more so usually because they almost always end up in front of me after decades of neglect. 
I need to stress this, there is no shortcut to this, no hack. The procedures in watchmaking are time consuming, and skill heavy. You can't 'just oil' or 'just clean' a watch. The full service for a mechanical watch is called a 'CTR' in the trade. I've seen watch movements that are 'dipped' or rinsed with various solvents and the result is either destruction of the watch or various other problems. 
The watch MUST be completely disassembled to properly clean it, and once you are at this point, you are deeply into a full CTR. Repair or replacement of parts, lubrication and regulation follow, and the case is cleaned also, usually polished. Bracelets are re-conditioned and leather bands replaced if necessary. 
I remember a Flea Market I used to go to every weekend, and there was a guy there selling vintage watches, claiming that they were serviced by 'his guy'. I asked him a few times what this service entailed, but he obviously did not know.
So one weekend I bought an Omega Seamaster from him, which he swore up and down was fully serviced and guaranteed. I took it home and looked inside.
Guess what?
It was filthy.
It was swimming in oil, and had rust issues under the dial. It had most certainly NOT been serviced in any way shape or form, in fact, only the balance side had been lubed at all, so half the watch was not lubed. There was oil everywhere it did not belong, and very little where it did. I did a CTR on the watch and took it back the following week to show the guy in the market.
He was not a bit impressed with my Smart- Assery, to say the least. He suspected I was trying to shake him down or something, but I insisted that I did not want my money back, I just wanted him to know that he was not getting value for his money. He told me the 'guy' knew what he was doing, and only charged him $40.
So you get what you pay for. We argued for a bit, and I agreed that to service every old watch would certainly cut into any profits he was making. 
Plus, it was quick.
Of that I have no doubt. Open the case, put some oil in the jewels that were visible and close the case, maybe regulate it a bit.
But what I am getting at here, is that quality takes time, and you can't hack watchmaking, you just can't. There are no shortcuts, especially in the learning part of the trade. If you don't fully understand what you are doing you are unlikely to do it well. There is school, and then apprenticing. The days of having a Master, where you just walked in 'picked up' the trade with no schooling are long gone. 
I have a sign that I have been meaning to put back up in the shop, it is something I have kept since my gun smithing days:

FAST   CHEAP   GOOD

Pick two, invert the third.

​R

Ah, the joys of owning a vintage timepiece, be it a watch or a clock. Maybe it belonged to your Grand Dad or your Great Great Grandmother. You remember it from your youth perhaps, you might even see it in old Black and White photographs, even tin- types. 
Just a word of caution in our hectic and hurly-burly world:
Vintage watches and clocks are elderly, and deserve some extra care and respect. In particular, because you might be carrying it on your wrist or in your pocket a lot, watches are the subject of today's missive. 
I've mentioned it before, but it bears mentioning often: Old watches, either wrist or pocket, are probably NOT water resistant in any way shape or form. Even if they were rated at some time in their past, or carry the wildly misleading imprint of "WaterProof", chances are they are no longer any such thing. Old wristwatches, in particular may not even be dust proof. Likewise they may not have any kind of shock protection. Now, take this with a bit of common sense, if your watch is a dive type and has some gaskets and a rating of some kind, these you might not worry as much about as say, a vintage Tank watch from the late thirties or forties. Military watches from the same period might be more robust, but not always. With this in mind, here's a few do's and don'ts for your vintage watch:

• Don't drop it! Always put your wristwatch on over your nice soft bed or over something soft in case you let go of it while you are fiddling with the clasp or band.
• Don't take it off in the washroom and set it on the counter while you wash your hands or even worse, run a shower. Your watch is all nice and warm from being worn, and is now cooling. Old cases will now begin to suck ambient air into themselves as they cool, and you are filling that ambient air with moisture. Keep them well away from the sink, especially the older types. Watches with screw down crowns should be ok, I'm talking the watches from the teens through the sixties unless they have some form of water resistance and it has been verified. 
• The same thing goes for being out in the rain, keep your wrist covered.
• Magnetism is everywhere these days, keep your watch away from magnetic fields and don't put them on the desk next to a cell phone. Cell phones kick out a field that will easily magnetize a vintage watch. 
• Don't work on your stripping your boat's hull or jackhammer your driveway while wearing your heirloom. We have actually had issues with this....
• Don't let the watch get overly hot, like on the dash of a hot car or in direct sunlight on a hot day while you catch some rays. Black dialled watches doubly so. (This also applies to modern Quartz watches big time)
• Even if your watch has a water resistant rating, and even if it HAS been pressure tested and passed, do NOT immerse it in hot water a la Hot Tub or hot shower. Heat shrinks gaskets, see where I'm going here? Hot water voids most (if not ALL) warranties. In order to maintain your watch's depth rating (If it has one) you must replace the gaskets every one or two years, if the watch is getting wet on a regular basis. Otherwise, the gaskets should be changed during your 4-6 year CTR.
• If your watch does get wet, and it shows signs of moisture in the case like fog on the crystal, it is a good idea to get it to a watchmaker STAT. Rust happens very quickly inside a watch. This also applies to quartz watches.

So that's it, really. Don't bang it into the door jamb if you can help it, watch out for magnetism and water, and be proud you are the caretaker of that time capsule from the past!

​R

 I thought we had touched on this before, but it seems we haven't, so some important information about quick set watches.
Quick set means you have a stem and crown that pulls out with more than two positions, and it is used to quickly correct the date or day, and in some watches, other functions as well. The reason this must be done correctly is that failure to observe the procedure will damage your watch.
Quickset began to be used in the Fifties, and various methods were patented to attempt to avoid the 'round and round' syndrome which used to be necessary to set a date on a watch that had stopped from disuse. This applied to both Automatic and Manual wind of course, so depending on the power reserve of the watch, you would pick it up after a couple days sitting on your desk or dresser, and in addition to setting the time, the date (if it had one) was also incorrect. 
The first thing you need to do is determine what time it really is on the watch. Rotate the hands forward to 12 O'Clock and see if the date flips over. If it does not, keep going to the next 12. If the date flips, that means midnight. If it still doesn't, the mechanism may be broken or there could be other issues. What is important is that you now know where midnight is. In the older watches with no quick set, you now have to advance to midnight to get the date to advance, then backup to around 8:30 or 9 and forward again to midnight, advancing the date each time until the correct number shows. This old system is the back-and-forth one and caused extra wear to the Cannon Pinion. It was an improvement over the even older method which I mentioned, the 'round and round', which meant you had to go forward a full 24 hours to advance the date. 
Makes it pretty tedious, I can tell ya.
So fast forward to the modern era and quick set. Different companies adopted the quick set at different times, so you might be surprised that your 1978 Rolex is NOT a quick set, but your 1968 Mido is. In addition to this, different companies experimented with different mechanisms, and some were just weird, and didn't last. Examples are the 'push-pull', and a mid seventies Omega device that set the Day by rotating the hands backward. Every couple mins would roll a new day past, which makes setting the watch back more than a couple mins a bit challenging, because you will automatically be rolling the Day as well. 
But back to the procedure.
So you pick up the watch, you advance the hands, you know where midnight is. Anytime after say 2am and before 8pm, it will be safe (In ALMOST all cases) to use the quick set. In most modern watches, this is the middle crown position. There is all the way in, middle, and all the way out. All the way out is the hands setting position we all know.
So you pull the crown halfway and now you can set the date and day, depending on your model. Now you advance the hands to whatever time it actually is, and Robert's your Uncle's Brother.
So what's the big deal anyway, you ask?
If you try and use the quick set during the hours that the watch is already beginning to change the day or date, you can strip the teeth off wheels in the motion works, and your watch is now damaged and won't work properly. Other parts may break, depending on the design of the mechanism. What is really important though, is that this can also apply to quick setting Quartz watches. 
So let's say you pick up your watch and the battery is dead, no problem, you change the battery yourself. (Or you take it to a trained professional, but if you do it yourself, use finger cots. Do NOT touch the battery with bare fingers, or the inside of the watch anywhere) And of course you use a quality battery(Like Renata), not some cheapo bulk purchase no name abomination. 
Now you want to set the watch, and all the above protocol applies. The quick set mechanism can be damaged in exactly the same way as those mechanical watches. This doesn't happen as much with quartz watches, because the batteries last a year or more, so you aren't picking up a dead watch that often. 
So that's it. A very important tip to avoid damaging your precious timepiece, and we do see a lot of watches that have issues from this sort of thing.

Keep on Tickin'.

​R