Just saw this thread and thought I might post a query while I'm here too.
I never used to wear watches growing up, but come my 16th birthday my sister bought me my first watch. The Casio G-Shock G-541D as per the image above. 6 years and 6 months on, it still sits around my wrist as I type. Perhaps not in the same condition it was brand new but it works nevertheless. I had the battery changed in the watch about 2 months ago (died on me after 6 years) in some hardware store in Leicester. It took them 2 days (very unusual I suspect) and they charged me £5 so I went along with it. Anyway, since then the clasp pin keeps popping out when you go to remove the watch and it just sort of falls apart from the link. I used this opportunity to look into getting a new watch.
I ended up buying an Emporio Armani AR1414 as pictured above as I was looking for something stylish and mechanical (to do with my personality and interests). I understand its more of a "fashionpiece" than a timepiece, but I really like it and looking at the prices of the equivalent Swiss watch I knew I didn't have much of a choice. Some of you may already recognise it is an automatic watch. Never owned an automatic watch so you can probably where this is going...
I only wore it on weekends or when going out as I had my G-Shock on during the week for work etc. So I left it in the box for two days and yes it stopped. At that time I didn't quite realise that you could use the crown to wind the spring back up to get the mechanism operating once again. So I just simply wore it and let the rotor spin up to get the mechanicals going again (probably where I went wrong). Eventually I noticed a faint rattling noise coming from the watch and my brother eventually told me about the crown I was supposed to use to keep it going. Now from what it appears, the rotor is stuck and has disengaged (come out of place) from the mechanism. However the watch still operates and remains accurate so long as the crown is wound every other day (which I do now anyway).
Here is a picture of the rear of the watch where you can see the rotor I speak of:
I'm heading down to London this weekend and notice there is "The Watch Surgery" (anybody had experience with them?) in London Westfield. I'm thinking of taking it there and perhaps they could reattach the rotor and re-lubricate the mechanism (any idea how much this should cost?).
Any advice is welcome and also if there's anything more I should know about general care and maintenance of automatic watches please feel free to comment.
Thanks, Azeem.