How to keep a service history that holds up
A maintenance record is only useful if a stranger can read it years later. That means dates, named providers, what was actually replaced, and the invoice kept next to the entry.
"Recently serviced" is not a record
It has no date, no provider, no scope and no evidence. It also ages badly: a watch described as recently serviced in 2021 is a watch of unknown maintenance status today.
A usable entry names the workshop, the date the work was completed, the type of intervention and what was replaced. A crystal replacement and a full overhaul are not the same event and should never be logged with the same word.
What to write down every time
- Date the work was completed, and the date you recorded it.
- Who performed it — a manufacturer service centre, an independent workshop, or an individual watchmaker.
- Type of intervention: overhaul, partial service, water resistance test, regulation, crystal, gasket, bracelet, or repair after damage.
- Parts replaced, including whether the original parts were returned to you.
- The invoice or job sheet, stored with the entry rather than in a folder somewhere else.
Keep the original parts question explicit
Whether a dial, hands or bezel were replaced during a service materially changes how a watch is later described. Recording the answer at the time costs nothing; reconstructing it a decade later is usually impossible.
If you do not know, write that you do not know. An honest gap is worth more than a confident guess that a future owner will inherit as fact.
Why entries should not be editable forever
A history you can quietly rewrite is not a history. In Watch Trust, records signed by a professional are append-only: a correction is recorded as a new entry that points at the one it corrects, so both remain visible with their dates.
That is less convenient than an edit button, and it is the entire point. Someone reading the record in fifteen years can see not only what is claimed now, but what was claimed before and when it changed.
Start with what you have
You do not need a complete archive to begin. Log the watch, add the invoices you can find, record the last service you remember with the level of certainty you actually have, and let the record grow from there. Every entry added today is one the next owner does not have to reconstruct.
Watch Trust records evidence about a watch and labels its source. It does not issue authenticity guarantees, and nothing in this article is an appraisal of any individual watch.