What Is The Lifespan Of A Budget Watch?

Budget watches are often said to be short lived, but is that actually true? Honestly, it can be hard to actually say. 

Often these watches can last a lifetime if they are well looked after. The main issue is that because they are cheap, they are not well looked after. This then causes them to break a lot sooner and its put down to them being cheap, when really if you treated them in the same way as a luxury watch they may last a lot longer.

Budget Watches Have Poor Quality Control

The companies that make budget watches need to keep costs down; one of the ways that this is often achieved is by cutting corners with quality control.  

The exact reason for how this happens is unknown. Maybe they hire less experienced staff or use less than ideal conditions for watch assembly or perhaps they just rush things in order to get as many watches made as quickly as possible. 

Whatever the reason, there is clearly a lack of quality control on a large number of budget watches. You can often find little things like dirt in the movement or just poor application of oil. This basically means that the watch is born to fail.

Usually the specs are pretty good on these watches, they are just assembled badly. This is really going to shorten the life of the watch. If it is not oiled properly the parts are going to start to grind on each other and wear down and eventually break.

You would sometimes be better off servicing a brand new budget watch, which is ridiculous, but you would probably find it lasts longer and even runs better if you did this.

Lifespan Depends On The Watch

I think it is important to also recognise that some watches are built better than others. While a Seiko is built from parts that are probably more comparable to a cheap homage watch from Aliexpress, than those found in a luxury high end watch, how they are assembled is very different. The Seiko watches will be built with a lot more care and quality control than a cheap Aliexpress watch and in this respect they are much more like its luxury counterparts.

This basically means that not all budget watches are equal.  While many have poor quality control, not all of them do. This means it can take some watches a lot longer to start showing signs of trouble compared to others.

Disposable

Budget watches are often seen as disposable due to their low price. This means people will bin them when they stop working or have any sort of issue.

It never crosses their mind to service the watch so you will often hear people say that they only last a few years. 

If we look at luxury watches they have the same problem. After a few years they will start to have issues or even break. The difference is that we service these watches to get them back to their best performance and keep them going for many more years.

We could easily do this with the budget watches but as it’s an expensive procedure it can often not be justified. Sometimes the service may cost more than the actual watch, so it’s cheaper to buy a new one. 

This basically gives us false understanding of how long a budget watch can last. If money wasn’t involved in the equation, we could easily service the watch and keep it running for many more years. However, money is involved so we tend to give up on a budget watch before it has been given a chance to live a long life.

Care Is Vital To Increase Lifespan Of A Budget Watch

I’ve already touched on this already, but caring for the watch is vital when it comes to its lifespan.

Daily Care

The first type of care is just the way you use the watch. Budget watches tend to get beat about a lot more. We treat them differently to luxury watches, we might not be doing this on purpose and it may well be subconscious, but we do it.

I have a number of mechanical watches and I have never dropped one, but I’ve lost count how many times I’ve dropped my G-shock. I’m certainly not doing it on purpose but I believe that I must be subconsciously aware that it will be fine, so I’m just less careful with it.

I know I would treat a 10k watch a lot more carefully than a £100 watch. This “lack of care” if you want to it that is certainly going to shorten the life of the watch. All those bumps and knocks can drastically reduce how long a watch will last for.  

This is also why you find a daily watch may not last as long as dress watch that you only wear a few times a year. Constant daily use is going to shorten the life of a watch compared to one that is only worn for 8 hours a year.

Servicing

Most people don’t service their budget watches. They just run them into the ground and then either replace the movement or bin the watch. If you service the watch it can potentially last indefinitely.

This is what keeps luxury watches lasting for a lifetime. If you did not service a luxury watch it would end up lasting as long as a budget watch.

The oil in a luxury watch and budget watch is pretty much going to be the same stuff. Eventually it is going to dry out and it doesn’t matter how cheap or expensive your parts are, if you have metal grinding on metal it is going to cause damage and result in the cogs and wheels breaking.

Not servicing your watch is greatly going to reduce its lifespan, of course this is an expensive procedure which is why people don’t do it for their budget watches, but if they did it would really elongate their watches lifespan.   

Parts Can Be An Issue

For the few people who do try and extend their budget watches through servicing, parts can be an issue.

Basically it is harder to find parts, especially for older models as the majority of them have been binned, rather than being kept for spare parts and repairs. 

If it is a mechanical watch, you are more likely to be able to find parts as often budget movements will have similar parts to other movements and they can often be interchanged. It’s not ideal, but you can usually work something out.

However, if it’s is a quartz or digital watch, parts for these can become obsolete faster so there is usually not many of them to start with, then when most people bin them, it can be very hard to find parts for these after a while.

If you can’t find the parts to repair a watch, it is going seriously limit its lifespan so a lack of parts is a real issue. 

Ideal Conditions For A Budget Watch

If you treated a budget watch like it was a million quid, you looked after it and serviced it regularly, it would easily last a lifetime.

There is no reason why a budget watch cannot last this long. The main reason they do not last this long is because we do not give them the ideal conditions and we basically run them into the ground.

If we treat the watch in this way it will probably last about a decade before it gives out. We can then decide if it is worth the cost to fix it, or get a new one.

Sadly too many of us move on to the next watch, when really with a little bit of effort we could keep the watch running for a long time.

(You might also like to read – How Long Do Quartz Watches Last?)