A cardinal sin of watchmaking is blowing onto a watch movement with your mouth. This is because your mouth contains moisture and contaminates that will affect the functioning of the watch. This is where a dust blower comes in very handy.
Rubber dust blowers are inexpensive and excellent for quickly displacing dust particles, lint and dirt from your movement by expelling high-pressure air from a fine tipped nozzle when squeezed. They can also be used for drying parts that have been put through an ultrasonic cleaning machine in place of a hair dryer (although a lot slower, and harder work!), as well as for parts that you have manually cleaned.
When drying parts, I would strongly recommend placing the part on some watch paper – to be covered in a future post, and ideally holding it with your tweezers to stop it from being blown away.
You should also use a dust blower to blow away any dust or lint from a dial and crystal just before re-fitting.
Bergeon, Horotec and A F Switzerland are the main branded manufacturers.
- Basic Variety = from £3
- Branded Variety = from £12
I’ve always used a budget option and not had any issues so can’t justify the extra cost for a branded option.
If you think I’ve missed anything or have anything to add, please comment below.
