Recently a friend contacted me with the following question;
Hi, Dave:
"There is someone who does a significant amount of watch repair work [near me], and I asked him if he completely disassembles watches when he cleans them. He responded that he "has a state of the art $12,000 cleaning machine" that allows him to clean some watches without disassembly (but needs to disassemble other watches, such as a chronograph). He advertises on his website that he does work on high grade watches.

It has been my understanding that you must always completely disassemble a watch rather than "dunk & swish," that such a method will result in dirt/debris getting caught in jewels and pivots and potentially causing future damage. He has reasonable prices and quick turnaround--I would be interested in using him but not if his methods are questionable.

Could you give me your opinion on this?"

My response;
"The reason we disassemble the watch completely is that there is so much detritus left behind from a combination of the old oil mixing with the crap the watch breathes in and wear of the watch parts themselves. Remember a watch is a diaphragm which is constantly inhaling and exhaling and much of the stuff we find with our peg wood polishing of the jewels is this stuff left over from the actual cleaning machines disposal of the oil residues. It prevails everywhere in the watch and includes many things which are abrasive as they are metallic oxides left over from combustion systems such as Freight trains Automobiles, Garbage burning, etc.

In short the "magic mega buck cleaning machine cannot replace "Elbow Grease". With patience, hard work and great care a watch can be cleaned and restored to nearly as good as new. The person who claims they have this thing are probably referring to one of the "automatic" wristwatch cleaners which flush those little things down as best they can and then after the cleaning fluid is done, they "rinse" the watch with a (?) lubricating oil-"rinse" mix . This will assure that all the junk in the watch will gum it up soon again.

I would stick with the "pros" like Cris Abell who can be trusted, unless it is a dollar watch you want cleaned.
Dave"

The reason we are all here is to present our view on these matters and help each other get "to the other side" with a minimum of loss as far as these things go. If you need your watch serviced, stick with the "good guys".

Dave, Good advice as usual.

That would have to be more of a magic machine than 'state of the art'. Does it remove cap jewels and clean between them and then place the proper amount of oil upon reassembly? Does it take the mainspring out of the barrel and clean and lube it properly? Does it examine all the parts for evidence of wear and polish pivots where necessary? Does it on and on....There are NO shortcuts to good watch servicing...NONE. My opinion.

Roger

A short walk-through of how I use Pegwood and Rodico to clean jewels and staffs; After I have spin-cleaned all the watch parts that I find necessary to disassemble; First I sharpen the pegwood to a point, then insert it into each friction jewel (those with no caps) and spin it. If there is any residue on the point, I repeat that until the jewel is clean . . .

For the capped Pivot Hole Jewels, I do the same thing with the loose pivot jewel on a clean surface or piece of pithwood. . .

For the Jewel cap, I clean off the opposite end of the Pegwood and make it unto a suface cleaner that I wipe the cap jewel face with until it reflects totally shiny with no spots on the cap Jewel surface . . .

As for the movement wheels, I first insert each end into a pithwood and spin them so the bearing areas are been lightly polished by the light abrasive effect of the silicon in the pithwood fibers . . .

I then re-polish the wheels in a piece of Rodico to remove the last vestiges of old crud before trying them in the cleaned plates for the "free spin" test. I also plunge the pinion parts of each wheel deeply into the rodico to remove loose debris in the pinion leaves . . . .