This week on Fratello On Air, we’re talking about how to maintain your watch collection. Again, this is a listener suggestion, but it’s a good one. We’re talking about how, when, and where to maintain your watches. And finally, we’re going to wrap up the episode with some suggestions for tools to have on hand. Listeners, the watch content starts in about 8 minutes.
Maintaining a watch collection sounds like a lot, but it doesn’t have to be. Our friendly hosts own quite a few timepieces and don’t neglect to maintain them. Still, there are times when a watch needs to be taken to a watchmaker. Today we’ll tell you how often we maintain our watches and what tools we keep at home to carry out small tasks.
Hand Control
There’s relatively little time for jokes in this episode (some may be happy about that), so we move straight into Hangelenkstop. Barras goes on a quick week-long vacation to Italy, and brings along two watches. The watch he’s wearing during the shoot is a Hamilton Khaki Field Mechanical. He wears it on a nylon strap to give it a carefree, easy-going summer vibe. Mike goes back to Japanese watches, wearing a Citizen 51-2273 Diver, an early ’80s automatic that rivals the original Seiko Turtle.
Maintaining your watch collection
A big thank you to our listeners in sunny Portugal for providing the theme for today’s show. How do you maintain your extensive watch collection? It’s a great question, but the answer is complicated. Firstly, since the collection is heavily focused on vintage pieces, I service the watches when necessary. I also keep records of the watches I have serviced or that need repairs. For newer watches, I rarely do any maintenance until it’s necessary. However, I do recommend having your diver’s watch pressure tested after the warranty expires. Is quartz the answer? Not necessarily, since some of these watches require maintenance and regular battery changes.
I’ll also mention the tools I keep on hand for small tasks like changing batteries or adjusting bracelets: a magnifying glass, a rubber ball for opening case backs, a screwdriver, tweezers, pin pushers, etc. And of course, the Bergeon name comes up again and again.
We hope you enjoyed today’s topic and we thank our listeners for their suggestions. If you have any more ideas for show topics, please let us know.
