How often should a mechanical watch be serviced?

Most makers suggest a full service every several years, depending on the movement and how the watch is worn. The movement is disassembled, cleaned of dried oil, re-oiled, regulated and given fresh gaskets, which is what allows a well-kept watch to run for generations.

Can a smartwatch be serviced?

Not in any meaningful sense. Wearables are sealed to achieve water resistance, thinness and low cost, with no serviceable oils or regulation and a battery not designed to be replaced. When it fails or loses software support, the device is replaced rather than repaired.

Why is a mechanical watch repairable when a sensor is not?

Because they were designed on opposite premises. Every part of a mechanical movement was made to be removed and remade so the watch can outlive its owner. A sensor trades that repairability for sealing, which is what makes it slim, water resistant and affordable.

Does dual wearing affect servicing?

No. The watch follows its own service cycle and the sensor follows its own replacement cycle, and neither event disturbs the other. A service visit is a good moment to have the strap fitted properly while the watch is already with the watchmaker.

Should I have the strap fitted by a watchmaker?

For a high-value watch, yes, at least the first time. It is a short job for a professional and a sensible precaution on a piece you intend to keep, and it fits naturally into a service appointment you were making anyway.

Is replacing a wearable wasteful?

It is the bargain the device makes. Sealing buys the qualities that make a sensor wearable at all. In a modular setup the damage is contained, since you replace only the sensor while the mechanical watch above it continues untouched.

Discover · Jul 09, 2026

One watch gets opened, the other gets replaced

David Ohayon

Founder & CEO, Smartlet - CentraleSupelec engineer - Concours Lepine 2025, Awarded - CES 2026

Contents

The ritual of being opened
The object nobody opens
One wrist, two maintenance schedules
FAQ

Somewhere in your city there is a person whose job is to open your watch, take it apart, wash the pieces, oil them and put it back together so it can run for another decade. There is nobody, anywhere, whose job is to do that to your smartwatch. That absence is not a gap in the market. It is the clearest statement either object makes about what it thinks it is worth.

Key takeaways

The ritual. A mechanical watch is disassembled, cleaned, re-oiled and regulated on a cycle of several years.
The premise. Every part is made to be remade, which is why a century-old movement can still run.
The other object. No wearable is serviced. It is sealed, and when it fails or loses support it is replaced.
Not a scandal. Sealing buys water resistance, thinness and cost; repairability was traded away deliberately.
The setup. The repairable half on top, the replaceable half underneath, each renewed on its own schedule.

The ritual of being opened

A mechanical service is a strange and beautiful piece of theatre. The watch goes away. Someone removes the caseback, lifts out the movement, separates it into a hundred pieces, cleans decades of dried oil from parts smaller than a grain of rice, replaces the gaskets, re-oils the pivots, regulates the balance, and hands the object back running better than when you bought it. It costs real money and takes real weeks, and people pay it without argument.

They pay because the premise of the watch is that it will outlive them. Every component was designed to be removed and remade, which is why a hundred-year-old movement is not a curiosity but a working machine. Even the humble parts follow this rule, as anyone who has read about spring bar replacement knows: they wear, so they are meant to be swapped.

What service really buys

You are not paying to fix a broken watch. You are paying to make the watch not break, indefinitely, on a schedule. That is a maintenance contract with the future, and it only makes sense for an object you intend to hand to someone.

The object nobody opens

Now try to imagine booking your wearable in for a service. The idea collapses immediately, and not because the technology is beneath repair. A sensor is sealed on purpose. Sealing is what makes it water resistant, thin, light and affordable. There are no oils to renew, no pivots to regulate, and the battery that will eventually fade is welded into a case designed never to be opened.

So the wearable has exactly one maintenance path, and it is replacement. When the battery goes, or the software leaves it behind, you do not repair it. You buy the next one. That is the honest bargain of the object, and the trade bought you everything you like about it, including the sleep tracking a watch cannot do.

Two objects, then, with two entirely different relationships to their own failure. One is opened so it never ends. The other is sealed so it works beautifully until it does.

One wrist, two maintenance schedules

Wear them together and the arrangement becomes almost administrative, in the best way. The watch on top goes to a watchmaker every few years and comes back renewed. The sensor underneath is replaced every few years and comes back as a newer sensor. Neither event touches the other. The strap stays. The architecture holds. You are running two maintenance schedules on one wrist and they never collide.

That is the practical case for modularity, and it is not romantic. It is bookkeeping. You do not future-proof the sealed half; you make it the only half you ever have to replace, exactly the reasoning behind composing a setup deliberately and behind keeping the watch and adding the sensor.

Worth doing at service time

When your watch goes in, that is the moment to have the strap fitted properly. For a high-value piece, having the strap fitted by a watchmaker the first time is a sensible precaution, and it costs nothing to do it while the watch is already in their hands. See the setup guide for the basics.

One object is opened so that it never truly ends. The other is sealed so that it never truly lasts. They agree to share a wrist. Check the brand compatibility index, the Apple Watch compatibility page, the collection and the titanium edition for what fits.

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