If a person takes the watch as a collocation for daily travel, it means that this person is very demanding on his life, and the watch he bought is still valuable, but he needs to pay special attention to it in daily life. But despite this, this does not completely avoid it from any "injury", bumps, scratches of hard objects, corrosion....
So after being injured, should our watches be repaired or refurbished? This is perhaps the entanglement of most watch wearers.
The Internet is now filled with many stories of how watches look brand new after being reworked and refurbished, but are these examples suitable for any watch?
Today the princess will help you sort out this problem from many angles, whether your old watch should be refurbished or not!
When it comes to refurbishing or repairing a watch, it's confusing to say which repair options we should accept as the best way to deal with it.
And the best way to measure it is: depends on whether the value of this watch has become better or worse after repair!
Usually old watches have the following common repair problems, including bumps in the appearance of the metal case, loosening of the metal strap after a long time, cracking and scratching of the watch mirror, defective parts of the movement and other issues.
01
Do you want to repair and polish the case?
This restoration has been highly controversial in the industry, and many watchers believe that watches should be cautious about refurbishing by polishing off the metal surface, because once the watch has been polished by the shell, it is likely to depreciate it.
In fact, with the exception of Rolex's Oyster sports steel watches, most watches have seriously affected their second-hand prices after being polished or filled with repairs. Collectors or enthusiasts prefer watches in their original state that are not polished, so watches that have not been processed by this process are more valuable. The princess's advice is to try not to polish and repair the exterior.
Of course, if you never intend to sell a love watch and prefer to wear a good-looking watch, you can also accept polish repair. However, you need to know that the skills of the restorer and the equipment he has are quite important, poor repair will destroy the love watch, and good repair will meet your expectations.
02
Replacement of the watch face
Some people believe that the original mirror of the watch should be retained in any case, and that random replacement will reduce the value of the watch. Like Rolex in the early days after the official replacement of the lens, the crown secret mark at 6 o'clock in the lens position will be distinguished by an additional "∽".
If the original gauge can be used normally, of course, it is the best choice to keep the original gauge.
However, the watch mirror is the first line of defense against moisture and liquid intrusion, and if the lens is cracked or broken, it should be replaced, so as to protect the dial, hands and movement from damage. Because the lens is broken or damaged, it may lead to the intrusion of moisture, dirt and, in some cases, even irreparable losses. Therefore, when replacing the watch mirror, it is best to replace the original watch mirror, so that the processing quality of the watch mirror can also ensure that the life of the watch will not be affected.
Some lenses break a small crack, and even do not affect the splash of water when they are worn daily, but diving watches such as Omega Seahorse 300, Rolex Submariner, etc., after entering the water, the pressure increases sharply, which will lead to direct water leakage of the glass.
03
Waterproof rubber ring
For waterproof rubber rings, many watchmen are very unfamiliar because they cannot be seen, located between the case and the bottom cover, between the case and the crown, and so on. However, its role is as critical as the glass, and it is a key line of defense against the intrusion of water vapor and dirt from the outside world.
For the restoration and refurbishment of old watches, the princess suggests that it is necessary to replace the waterproof rubber ring! This replacement is harmless and will not affect the value of the watch, on the contrary, if it is not replaced in time, it may lead to damage to the watch due to the intrusion of water vapor.
Because of its physical characteristics, the waterproof rubber ring will change with the environment and the passage of time, resulting in brittleness, cracking, flattening, loss of elasticity, viscosity, etc., resulting in reduced waterproof performance. Therefore, the advice given by the princess is: every few years, even after each disassembly of the case, regardless of whether the waterproof rubber ring is damaged or not, it should be replaced regularly.
04
Do you want to fix the dial and hands?
This item is similar to the case of the watch case, we must measure whether the value of the watch after the watch face is repaired?
Here the princess particularly emphasizes that the original dial and hands need to be retained without compromise, and must not be replaced at will! The original is the best. Even if it has minor problems, as long as it does not affect the normal walking time of the watch.
When the princess identifies a watch, she will first check whether there is a problem with the dial and hands, which is also the key point of the identification of the true and false watches in the haute chow. The replaced dial and hands will lose the charm of the watch itself, and will also depreciate the watch significantly.
What if there is something such as luminous coating falling off? The usual solution abroad is to use transparent varnish or nail polish to cover the shedding area to ensure that the remaining, old luminous coating is intact, so as to ensure that it will not be further damaged.
05
Core parts
The failure of the movement parts can directly affect the performance of the watch. In general, replacing the original parts will not have a big impact on the overall value of the watch (note whether the traces left during disassembly are obvious, including the size of the warped edges of the nut grooves) If the original parts have been stopped or cannot be obtained, they can be handmade or find alternative parts with exactly the same specifications, and the value will be affected by the criticality of the parts. These damaged parts must be replaced in a timely manner, otherwise further damage to the movement may result.
06
Bezel crown
The bezel is aimed at some special models, such as the antique Rolex GMT, submariner, bezel and even the core elements of these models, if it is replaced hastily, it will have a very big impact on its value. The princess recommends keeping it as original as possible.
The crown and chronograph button are another area where watch players prefer originals, but need to be carefully inspected for severely damaged parts. Similar to the watch mirror, these components ensure the tightness of the watch. If the crown has been damaged so that the time and seal cannot be adjusted, then a new one is replaced. The princess's advice is that if it has been completely damaged and affects the normal state of the watch, then it should not hesitate to replace it.
Bring you a different watch cognition. Focus on maintenance, authoritative evaluation, understand the watch, more talk. You just need it, I can just give, I hope today's article is still helpful to you, I am the fifth princess!