How to clean and oil a watch.

[The Buddha]

OK I have a fake swiss watch ... so smart ideas like Take it to a jeweller etc are going to be replied with a kick to your nuts ...
So, I wanna clean and oil and what not. Can I open the back, spray wd40 into it and put the back thing on and wear it for a few days, then sit it with the back down and drain it. Sorta like an oil change.
The damn thing is making scraping type noises ... Yes I know its cheap ass crap, which is one reason why it needs to be lubed and cleaned often ... I mean you'd not want your cheap ass crap die before its due right
Cool.
Srinath.

[SmartDrug]

As a jeweler for 6 years, I can tell you that there's no way a watch should need lubrication any more often than once every 2-3 years.  WD-40 will do nothing but make the situation worse.  If you paid anything less than $200 for it, throw it out or forget about keeping it wound and running, it's a lost cause.  If it's a high end replica, take it to a jeweler and have them overhaul the movement, it shouldn't cost much more than $200 and the repair will have a warranty period of 1-2 years.  If it's making scraping noises, that has nothing to do with the lack of lubrication, imagine your tire is rubbing on your swingarm, you can't just throw some grease on there and expect everything to be alirght, same situation.  There is so little power running through your average automatic or manual watch that they cannot afford any sort of friction when it comes to ticking, therefore on high- end pieces they don't even have metal touching metal inside, they use low friction minerals like ruby to help make them more accurate, so there's no way that there should be any rubbing, let alone rubbing hard enough to hear from outside the case.  If you do open the back and spray something in there it's just going to throw whatever is out of alignment into an even worse spot.  Save the time and hassle, pitch it or take it to your jeweler.

[The Buddha]

OK couple of added info points.
The watch is a cheap ass fake. Nothing high whatever about it.
However, its got a smooth sweeping second hand (or like 5 moves a second) its retains energy for 36-40 hours if let sleep, and overall works great. Its got a hacking signal too BTW.
So I am inclined to think ... its a chineese copy of a high end mechanism.
Its working well as of now. I was just hoping to clean off the manufacturing junk off it.
So How about mobeius lube
Man, I wanna do an oil change for it and see if I can drag it to the 100K mile mark.
But thanks for replying, I knew someone will know about this stuff.
Keep it comming. One of the other copies took 2 decent blows to the crystal and survived, and they all survived a dunk in water. I have 8 (of course only 2-3 will end up with me ... ) ... and they all seem to have the same characterstics.
Cool.
Srinath.

[Cal Price]

Don't use WD40 or anything like it, the earlier advice is sound but if you want to mess around, and why not you will need a propper watch oil.

My father used to repair clocks and watches as a hobby, he was a marine engineer and said it was pretty much the same, just a bit smaller! He used to use something that was called "Moose-jaw oil" which was very light and he would apply it with the point of a needle as very small amounts were in order. maybe careful cleaning with a small cotton bud and some surgical spirit might do it. What's to loose?

[SmartDrug]

OK couple of added info points.
The watch is a cheap ass fake. Nothing high whatever about it.
However, its got a smooth sweeping second hand (or like 5 moves a second) its retains energy for 36-40 hours if let sleep, and overall works great. Its got a hacking signal too BTW.
So I am inclined to think ... its a chineese copy of a high end mechanism.
Its working well as of now. I was just hoping to clean off the manufacturing junk off it.
So How about mobeius lube
Man, I wanna do an oil change for it and see if I can drag it to the 100K mile mark.
But thanks for replying, I knew someone will know about this stuff.
Keep it comming. One of the other copies took 2 decent blows to the crystal and survived, and they all survived a dunk in water. I have 8 (of course only 2-3 will end up with me ... ) ... and they all seem to have the same characterstics.
Cool.
Srinath.

Hell yeah man, I'm not saying you shouldn't try it if you've nothing to lose, but don't be surprised if the entire piece is shot after you try something it's not designed for.  Good luck and I hope you have some luck.   

+1 on cal price's advice about the specialty lube though, it'll at least increase your odds of it working.

[The Buddha]

I opened one of the fake Breitlings.
The inside was really clean, and it was almost all stainless. It was also very very air tight.
Now the watch I was worried about is a ferrari badged version of a panerai fake ... the thing was, I found out they wind up as well. That watch ran ~44 hours on no winding at all, just wearing it for a few hours wound it up enough to run that 44 hours. Then I hand wound it. As it got wound up more, I even felt the crown get tighter, and the loosey goosey feeling as the flyweights were spinning reduced a lot.
For now I am going to let it be and see how it pans out.
I know of people who have gotten 3+ years out of a fake (and still running) and someone else who's got ~10 out of another one that was a quartz one. Mine looks and feels better than all of those. Hope its not going to fall apart ...
But yes watch lube - that mobeius was somehting like that sold by dude on ebay.
Cool.
Srinath.