Watch service costs

A full service on a simple mechanical watch costs roughly $250 to $500 at a competent independent watchmaker, and roughly $350 to $900 at a brand service center. A chronograph typically runs $500 to $1,200 depending on where it goes. An in-house caliber from a major brand usually lands between $500 and $1,200. Perpetual calendars, minute repeaters and split-seconds chronographs start around $2,000 and climb into several thousand.

Those are indicative US dollar ranges for 2026, quoted before sales tax, which varies by state. Bench rates track local wages, so a watchmaker in a large city charges more than one in a small town, and a service center in one country prices differently from the same brand's center in another, which matters if you live outside the US or send the watch across a border. Read them as orders of magnitude. Our answer on what a service costs gives the short version.

What a full service actually includes

A service is not a clean and a polish. The movement is stripped to individual components, cleaned, inspected, rebuilt with fresh lubricants and then proved on a timing machine over days. A complete job covers all of the following.

• Complete disassembly of the movement, including the barrel, and machine or ultrasonic cleaning of every part.
• Inspection of pivots, jewels, the escapement, the winding train and the keyless works for wear.
• A new mainspring in most cases, plus whatever else the inspection condemns.
• Reassembly with the correct oils and greases, of different viscosities, at each specified point.
• Fresh case, caseback and crown gaskets.
• Regulation across several positions, measured over days rather than minutes.
• A water resistance test once the case is closed.
• A written warranty on the work, commonly one to two years.

Our servicing and care guide goes through each of those in detail, including what to ask for and what to refuse.

Why the bill is labor, not parts

The consumables in a routine service cost very little. A mainspring, a set of gaskets and a few milliliters of specified oils are a small fraction of the invoice. What you are buying is a trained person's time, and a full overhaul is commonly several hours of concentrated bench work spread across more than one day, because regulation has to be measured over time rather than instantly.

The escapement is the reason the job exists. It is the one place in the watch where metal repeatedly impacts metal, and it runs on a microscopic film of oil that oxidizes and migrates whether the watch is worn or not. Once that film has gone, the pivots and jewels wear, and wear turns a cleaning job into a parts job. That is the whole economic logic of the service interval.

Indicative price ranges by movement type

Precious metal cases, bracelet refinishing, a new crystal and corrosion damage are all quoted on top. So is a replacement bracelet, which on some brands costs more than the service itself.

Independent watchmaker or brand service center

The independent route is cheaper, usually faster and often more communicative. A good independent will send you a timing report, will do exactly the work you agreed and will leave the case alone if you ask. The limits are parts and liability: several large groups restrict genuine components to their own networks and to accredited watchmakers, so an independent may be unable to quote on certain modern references at all.

The brand route buys guaranteed parts, a manufacturer warranty on the work and a service record that a future buyer can see. On brands where documented history supports resale, that record has value, which our depreciation guide covers. It costs more, it takes longer, and in many centers case refinishing is the default rather than an option. A brand overhaul on a time-and-date Omega typically lands in the $795 to $1,100 band and Rolex around $800 to $1,200, while a mainstream Swiss brand center and Tudor sit nearer $350 to $600, with chronographs above all of those.

What changes the quote once the watch is open

The published figure is for a movement that only needs cleaning and lubricating. Four things commonly push it upward, and all four are worth asking about in advance.

1. Wear from a long-overdue service. Worn pivots or damaged jewels mean replacement parts and fitting time.
2. Water or moisture damage. Rust spreads and cannot be cleaned off; affected parts get replaced. This is why periodic pressure testing matters if you swim with a watch.
3. Magnetism plus impact. A demagnetizer is a two-minute job, but a shocked balance staff or a deformed hairspring is not.
4. Parts availability. On discontinued references, sourcing can add weeks and a premium, or end the job entirely.

When a service is not worth doing

This is the part most price pages avoid. The test is arithmetic, and it is unsentimental.

Compare the quote against two other numbers: what the watch would actually sell for in its current condition, and what an equivalent working watch costs to buy. If the quote exceeds both, a service is a choice about attachment rather than about money, which is a legitimate reason but should be a conscious one.

Worked through on a common case: a Japanese automatic bought for around $300 stops keeping time after eight years. A full service quote is $300. The same watch used sells for perhaps $120 to $180. A replacement movement of the same family, fitted, commonly costs $100 to $220 all in, and the result is a watch with a new movement rather than a refurbished one. On that watch, the overhaul is the wrong purchase. This is why our Seiko and Orient pages both point at movement replacement rather than overhaul at the bottom of the range.

The calculation reverses when the movement cannot be replaced: an in-house caliber, a discontinued reference or anything where the movement is the reason the watch is worth something. There, a service is maintenance of an asset, not a repair bill.

The cheaper jobs that are not a full service

Not every complaint needs an overhaul, and a good watchmaker will tell you so.

• Demagnetizing is minutes of work and often free or under $25. It fixes a large share of watches that suddenly run fast.
• Regulation alone, adjusting the rate without opening the movement further, typically costs $60 to $150. Measure the watch first with our accuracy calculator so you know what you are asking for.
• Gaskets and a pressure test without a movement service usually runs $40 to $100.
• A quartz battery with a new gasket and a pressure test is a different job entirely, at $40 to $80.

How to get a quote you can trust

Get the inclusions in writing. Ask for a timing report before and after, on a timegrapher, in several positions; our guide to timing your own watch explains how to read one. Ask explicitly about polishing. Agree a value above which the watchmaker contacts you before fitting parts. Ask what warranty covers the work and for how long. And ask for the old parts back, which good benches offer without being prompted.

Who should service and who should wait

Service now if the watch is losing or gaining more than it used to, if the power reserve has visibly shortened, if there is moisture under the crystal, or if you are about to swim with a watch that has never been tested. Read how often a watch needs servicing before you book on the calendar alone.

Wait if the watch runs to your satisfaction and the interval is simply up. Do not service at all if the quote exceeds both the resale value and the replacement cost, and a fresh movement is available instead. And before you buy your next watch, put the service figure into the cost of ownership calculator or read the ten-year worked examples in our ownership cost guide, because two or three overhauls across a decade change which watch is actually the expensive one.