7/29/2019 American Watchmaker's Institute Article on Watch Lubrication

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In the January 1997 American Watchmakers Institutes Horological Times,

David Christianson wrote:

Historically, animal oils and vegetable oils [were] the mainstay of horological

lubricants. They can be refined and formulated to have many of the ideal properties

of the perfect horological oil. But they have one serious drawback as well - they

become rancid and dry up. This may be [viewed as] a serious drawback to thewatch owner, but it certainly has been beneficial to watch repairmen and, as well

see in a moment, it has been beneficial to the watch movement as well.

When the animal and vegetable oils begin to deteriorate, they tend to thicken as

they dry out, and the movement stops, long before any wear can take place

because the thickened and dried oils still maintain a protective (albeit dried) film

between metal surfaces. This forced the owner to have his watch cleaned and re-

oiled on a regular and frequent basis, and with this frequent service the movement

continued to perform its function with very little wear over very long periods of

time. It is not unusual at all to find watch movements 100 and 200 years old that

show very little wear.

In the search for oils that would not deteriorate in a [such a] short period of time,

synthetic oils were developed that would provide many of the properties of the ideal

watch oil. About a generation ago, synthetics replaced animal oils as the oils of

choice.

Synthetic watch oils do retain their properties longer and watch movements run

longer without wear than did movements oiled with animal oils. But synthetic watch

oils have their serious downside as well. There is not the thickening and caking of

the oil to stop the movement and force the owner to have his watch serviced beforewear can take place. Synthetic watch oils, too, deteriorate but instead of thickening

they tend to become more liquid, spread ** and evaporate over time, especially the

synthetics of the recent past. The significant of this type of deterioration is that the

movement will continue to run even as the synthetic oil deteriorates and evaporates

(albeit less efficiently). This will continue until pivots score, often to the point of

breaking and brass bearing holes wear ovoid, aggravated by dust, dirt and rust

particles from leaking case gaskets and more significantly, leaking crown gaskets.

Unless the owner is disciplined with a regular and frequent service schedule (and

most of us arent), it is the worn out movement that forces the owner to seek the

servicing of the watch with a resultant extensive and expensive repair bill.[unfortunately], jeweled bearings and highly polished pivots and other bearing

surfaces will allow the watch to run without oil but with resultant wear.

The secret to a long-lived watch movement is frequent cleaning and oiling, just as in

the past, but now more discipline is needed. The watch itself can not tell us when it

needs servicing before it begins to wear out as the animal [or vegetable] oils of the

past allowed us so to do

7/29/2019 American Watchmaker's Institute Article on Watch Lubrication

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