How long would you send your watches to service?

For better, or worse I’m in the ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it‘ camp. 

I've talked to a local independent watchmaker and he said that he wouldn't service a watch until it got really inaccurate or something else is going wrong. I think he has a point. Especially people with more than one watch don't wear all their watches everyday. So less wear of the parts anyway. 

A watch that runs perfectly fine on one day normally isn't totally broke on the next day. So why should I service a watch that runs perfectly fine? With modern parts and modern oils everything is okay I think. 

Could be a different story for vintage watches. The main problem might be that there are most times not a lot of parts available. So when you've a problem with a broken part, you might have a big one. Nevertheless I don't think a watch breaks if you doesn't service it immediately when it's necessary but vintage pieces are more fragil. So I would be a little bit more careful with them. 

One last thing about service. When your local watchmaker is doing a great job I don't think you need to send in watches with ETA / Selita movements. He'll do a great job with better prices and you might have found a new friend. Of course only when it's just a service and no new hands or any other parts are needed. So support the local watchmakers!  

Yeah I'm also in "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" camp.

Me too

i think 5 years is fair to lubricate the movement and change the seal gasket

Depends on how much you wear them,ie everyday or like me only for 'best'. Modern lubricants shouldn't dry up and should give years of service. So I agree with all on here that if it ain't broke or misbehaving time wise leave it. Only thing I would advise is if your watch gets very wet,maybe have the seals  checked/replaced.

Why are you wearing a watch, and how heavily do you rely on it?

In this era mechanical watches are mostly about having a hobby, making a fashion statement, or communicating status and wealth. Some celebrities/performers wear flashy non-functional fake watches (the Hublot and diamond crowd) because this is expected in the culture. Some wear black-on-black dials that are impossible to read, either as jokes or a different fashion statement. 

Service standards made a lot of sense back before quartz but not much when there are clocks on phones, smartwatches, and clocks in most every car or room. I once made a game out of not wearing a watch of any sort, as it forced me to look at wall clocks and find them. I did this for several years.

A hobbyist may own a dozen or 100 watches and rarely wear them. So, depending on the person it could be either the "if it ain't broke" strategy or "it sometimes doesn't matter if it works at all." 

I do reply on my mechanical watches as my time keeping tool as I worked in environment that I cannot take out my mobile phone to check the time.

For better, or worse I’m in the ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it‘ camp. 

Ditto.  Being a Timex guy, I don't service my watches (one of the positives of being a budget collector).  What do they charge for service on Rolex and other luxury watches.  

$550 for an Omega three hander. I think it’s $750 for the Speedy as it is a chronograph. Can’t speak to Rolex.

Thanks.  I wonder what it would cost of someone handed me down a Timex that I wanted to wear for sentimental reasons.  It would probably be easier to have them replace the entire movement.

Any vintage piece I pick up goes in for a service right away unless the seller can show me it was recently serviced. Otherwise, about every five years for my Swiss pieces as far as the bulk of my Japanese movements I look at them on a case y case basis.