How did my watchmaker know what year my watch was serviced?

A afaw34

I brought a vintage watch I recently bought to a reputable watchmaker in my city for a service. He was swamped with customers so I left the watch with him and he gave me a call later to discuss pricing.

He told me that the last time this watch was serviced was in 1993. Not surprised because the person I bought it from told me that it was his grandfather's watch that's been sitting in the drawer for a long time. But I was surprised that he knew the year of the service... How is it possible? I don't think the caseback or dial had any information written..

here is a pic:

X350 XJR

Fortunately scratching service and repair notes inside case backs is now generally frowned upon by watchmakers.

Canuck

When I service a watch which has been serviced before by a repair shop that used a sharpie to mark his repair information in the case back, that sharpie marking invariably washes out when I clean the case back. I feel no compunction when I scribe my repair number inside the case back. Tough for the sharpie guy!

timecube

e.g. it's important if your focus is collecting watch servicings, more than it is collecting watches.

Canuck

It is an important part of the history of this particular watch, and I have accumulated a lot of archival material about this watch. It is clearly not my intention to change the opinions of you hard liners who think a sharpie is the way to go.

Again, I asked if the watch repair records should be important to me. Perhaps I’m wrong, but having the information IS important to me, regardless of what you think.

Canuck

It most certainly would be if the watch ever went back to Mr. Sharpie! One of my pocket watches has 35 repair numbers neatly scribed in tiny numbers inside the case back. It was used by a railroader over his 48 year career with C P Rail. I can tell you what was done, when it was done, and what was charged with each of 32 of those numbers! I didn’t put any of those numbers in the case back, myself. A friend has that watch inspector’s entire watch repair record on his computer data base. Is a record of past repairs important? In the case of this watch it most certainly is!

Archer

Yes, intentionally damaging a customer's watch essentially for your own record keeping, is most certainly not accepted generally these days.

There really is no reason to do this.

As for using a Sharpie or any other maker, until I see some analysis that shows that the off gassing from the chemicals in the marker isn't going to cause a problem, I'll do what I've always done - no marks on the watch at all. There are lots of ways to track a repair that you have done that don't involve making any marks on your customer's property.