How to Take Care of a Watch

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A watch must be carefully attended to. It should be wound up every morning or evening (perhaps evening is the best time) about the same hour. The key should be in good condition, and fit well to the arbor. If it is too large and has a steel point, it will soon wear off the corners of the arbor, and then it cannot be wound up at all. It should also be 1 - - —J*1* — ." tno fast nor slow, there are more mainsprings and chains broken through a jerk in winding, than irom any other cause. As all metals contract s.nd expand by heat, it must be manifest that to keep the watch as nearly as possible at one temperature, is a necessary piece of attention. Keep the watch as constantly as possible in one position—that is, if it hangs by day, let it hang by night against something sott. The hands of a chronometer or duplex watch should never be set backwards—in other watches this is of no consequence. The glass should never be opened in watches that set and regulate at the back. On regulating a watch, should it be fast, move the regulator a trifle towards the slow, and if going slow, do the reverse. You cannot move the regulator too slightly or too gently at a time, and the only inconvenience is, that you may have to perform the duty more than once. Never keep a poor watch ; that is one with poorly finished works, which cannot under any circumstances keep good time. No person should keep a watch on which he cannot rely for accuracy ; a good watch is a faithful mentor, a poor one is like a false companion. It makes no matter whether the case of a watch be gold or silver, if the works are well executed and arranged, it is a good watch. Appearances in watches are as deceitful as the dress of individuals; the character cannot be discovered by the outward appearance.— One word more. Let none of our young or old friends who may come from the country this summer to visit New York City and the Crystal Palace, buy a watch at any auction he may see going on in any street, however respectable in appearance the shop may be ; if he does, he will have to pay for a gilt instead ot a gold one ; in such cases the price paid is always too dear for the lesson taught.

Scientific American Magazine Vol 8 Issue 31This article was published with the title “How to Take Care of a Watch” in Scientific American Magazine Vol. 8 No. 31 (), p. 248
doi:10.1038/scientificamerican04161853-248c

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