Too many questions about watch servicing/maintenance

Sure

To clean the old lubricants out, check parts for wear, etc. requires fully dismantling the movement. It's what all brands do when they service a mechanical watch, so it's more like rebuilding the engine than just doing an oil change.

I think this is an issue for many of us as an elder generation of watchmakers have retired over the last 20 years and the pool is shrinking. My watchmaker is on his way to retirement (partially there already), so I too will have to start the hunt for someone I trust, and finding that locally may be impossible. Luckily the community here is spread out enough across the globe that there is usually someone that can be reccomeded at least within the same country- so you should make a thread for recommendations in your area or at least within your own country.

I can't verify that Longines scrapped all their spare parts, but I can say that Swatch group is of no help at all with regards to sourcing vintage Longines parts, so it would not surprise me if this was the case. So although I have a Swatch group parts account, every time I ask for vintage Longines parts, they are of zero help. In contrast Omega has parts going back a long ways...but nothing for Longines.

In terms of watchmaker availability, yes there only a few new watchmakers coming out of school (not enough to replace those who are retiring), and many of those are going to brand service centers. It's a much easier path to work in a service center, than being an independent watchmaker and running a business. At the service center you have resources of the entire brand behind you, access to all kinds of equipment and parts that you don't have to pay for, no issues getting parts from the brands you work on, and you go home every night and relax not having to worry about ordering parts, billing customers, what to do when their watch is done, it's time to pay, and they never reply to you (dealing with that right now)...and the list goes on...but I would never work in a service center personally.

The fact is the average age of watchmakers is going up all the time. It's only going to get worse from here, and even brands are having a hard time filling the roles they need watchmakers for. This is why a lot of the work at service centers is being done by people other than trained watchmakers, but people who are given on the job training. In many instances this is limited to things like installing dials and hands, final casing, refinishing of the case and bracelet. The trained watchmaker only works on the movement, and nothing else.

But now with the "sequential servicing" model, these people with no formal training and only on the job training will be doing more of the movement work. This is essentially an assembly line type system where one person is trained on one specific area of the movement, such as the barrel area, so they will install the new barrel and put the bridge on, and then the movement moves to the next person who will install the train wheel and the bridge, and then it moved down the line to someone else who does the winding/setting parts, and so on. This eliminates the need for someone working on the movement who understands the whole movement, and at the end a trained watchmaker may only do the final touches - escapement work and adjusting for example.

This is the future of local servicing at brand service centers. On top of that many makers (Tudor for example with their "in-house" caliber) simply replace the entire movement in the watch, and then send the movement they removed back to a central location to be serviced, and then it is sent back out to be installed as a replacement in the future. Omega does this with the modular chronograph movements in some markets.

Things are changing, and true watchmaking skills are constantly being eroded by these policies...

Cheers, Al

I grew up the son of a GM master mechanic and I have seen enough of the insides of engines of cars that folk drove until they quit. So I also grew up a firmly believer in routine maintenance on all things mechanical. Once I bought my first decent watch and found a watch maker I began learning about watch movements and basic maintenance. Now through the help of books, my old watch maker, and this forum I clean and adjust most of my own watches. I haven't tackled an auto winder yet but I plan on picking up a cheap one to tinker with later this year.

I will service my three Omegas (Speedmaster, Seamaster and Globemaster) every 5-7 years, but through an Omega qualified independent watchmaker and not through Omega’s service centers - too expensive and they have a tendency to devalue watches with service parts, particularly dials. I’ve seen too many examples of Omega service “upgrading” vintage tritium Speedy Pros with Superluminova service dials and hands.