25 years without a service......and........perfect.

This is my 20+ year old Tag Professional 200. When I got it, it was the best I could afford, and it was my daily beater for years - it's been diving, surfing, climbing and all manner of abuses. It's NEVER been serviced - threw it on the timegrapher recently, and that's how it was running - nearly perfect. A dated look, but a bombproof movement for sure. (also, a lot better than some new 'luxury' watches I own) - how do your oldies stack up in terms of accuracy? (mechanical only please - quartz is brilliant, but a bity 'cheaty' for that question 😀 )

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They probably made them better than lol...congrats on an awesome classic  swiss watch 

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Very good indeed.  The amplitude might be higher with a service but I don't know if i'd bother looking at that. 

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Tunokies

Very good indeed.  The amplitude might be higher with a service but I don't know if i'd bother looking at that. 

I thought that too, but 280 is still well within range - it was the beat error that surprised me - I'd have expected the balance spring to go off a little over that many years, but apparently not.

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My speedy pro is much the same - beaten to hell but still keeps time like a trooper. I have a reduced speedy as well, but it was definitely off (+40s/day), so its away to the sick watch shop at the moment......

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Love Tags. I think they're underrated and don't get the love they deserve. A few models coming out that I wouldn't mind adding to my collection. 20-plus years without a service and still running near perfect is ridiculous (in a fantastic way).

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samswatches

Love Tags. I think they're underrated and don't get the love they deserve. A few models coming out that I wouldn't mind adding to my collection. 20-plus years without a service and still running near perfect is ridiculous (in a fantastic way).

yeah, it's nuts isnt it? I obviously got lucky with whoever put this one together.

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now i got a question, is it necesarry to service the watch (especially replenish the grease) after 5-10 years? dont you worry 20 years without a service can damage the movement?

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Unholy

now i got a question, is it necesarry to service the watch (especially replenish the grease) after 5-10 years? dont you worry 20 years without a service can damage the movement?

True, it is probably grinding itself to an early grave ( the winding action is a bit gritty), but still impressed at the performance of the balance for all that. Ideally, a watch should be disassembled, cleaned, parts replaced and re-assembled/tested every 4-5 years. In practice, I usually get mine done every 5-7 years - it's an expensive service for some of them (I'm looking at you JLC!), but most offer some form of warranty post-service and its a useful authenticity check if you didint buy the watch new. 

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Every watch will fall-off as the mainspring runs out of juice - I guess the mark of a truly great movement is that the balance/escape keeps doing it's job well until the last joule of energy is wrung out of the mainspring :D Grapher readings are a useful health-check, but in real-world use, most watches perform worse  than the graph trace - it's just an interesting way of getting some spot insight into what's happening inside the case. 

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Took my wife's 25 year old never been serviced Rolex DJ to my AD to get it serviced but the rather young man (my normal guy at the AD wasn't in at the time) said if it was working properly, it didn't need to be serviced.  

I'm pretty sure this is wrong but I guess I can save my money until I see my guy again. I guess watch ADs are not like car dealerships making all their money on services or their employees would be trained to encourage getting their watches serviced.