September 3rd, 2007 - Over Wound Watches: Repairers in Over their Head
If you bring a watch to a watchmaker and they say that it is impossible for them to fix your watch because it has been “over wound” my advice is for you to get out of that place fast. Even if they do try to service you watch and say that it is possible to fix, watchmakers who believe that a watch can be over wound by you through simple everyday use cannot be trusted. The reason for this is that there simply isn’t a way for you to over wound your watch even if you wind it often. The only way this will happen is if you persist on twisting the winding crown even after it already feels really really tight. So unless you have done this, and I doubt you can turn the winding crown when it gets too tight with your fingers alone, then you know that the watchmaker is not saying the truth. The watchmaker can be lying to you intentionally, seeing that your watch is very difficult to repair and not wanting to go in the trouble of repairing it or knowing that it is beyond his skills to repair, or unintentionally, being a new watchmaker and having misconceptions thus showing ineptness. Either way, the best thing to do is to get out of the shop fast and find another watchmaker to do the watch repair job for you. However,