I serviced it myself a few months ago. It definitely needed a new crystal, but the movement was in very good condition. I didn't even replace the mainspring. Some pictures here: https://www.watchrepairtalk.com/topic/25437-first-successful...

A watch from the 60s can still be serviced today (80 years later).

An apple watch will intentionally brick itself (to preserve battery life, honest) after 8 years.

Now just can -- when disassembling a mechanical wristwatch you realize that these things were built with serviceability in mind. There's no glue, everything comes apart with ease. That's one of the main reasons for my fascination with them. How many other things in our daily lives are built like this?

Under relatively normal wear, the only parts that should be replaced are the crystal, mainspring, and rotor. That's 3 wear parts, not exactly a "ship of theseus".

If something is broken, sure. It might need replacing. But that's rarer, I think, than people realize, and rarely is it more than one or two parts of the movement.

I recently repaired my great-grandfather's pocket watch and the only replacement necessary was the mainspring.

I've use a 100 years-old watch as a daily driver for a few years (until it was stolen...). It was serviceable, but it was relatively expensive, so I lived with its known 2-5 minutes daily drift. I'd say that up to 10 minutes of daily drift is perfectly tolerable in my book, so it could probably go 200 years without any servicing whatsoever :)

> 10 minutes of daily drift is perfectly tolerable

Heh I feel bad when I'm 10 min late to a call, but if I had your watch I'd be 20 min late!

I'd wind the watch and adjust it in the morning, and will be 2-5 minutes late in the evening. But at times I would adjust it during the day while watching time close to another, more reliable time source (like a public clock in a train station, for instance, or TV news in a shop window). After all it only takes a second to adjust: pull the crown, turn it a tiny bit, and push it back in :)

People are wincing at the idea of watch that is 5+ minutes off, but I typically intentionally set my watches roughly 5 minutes fast anyway. Helps me avoid being late for stuff. (I realize this makes no sense if you think about it too hard... shhhhhh)

If I need the precise time, I can pull out my phone or just ask another human who nearly because they will surely have a phone :)

(Note to non-watch enthusiasts: we are talking about the tolerances on very old watches; a modern $100 mechanical is usually accurate to within 5-10 seconds a day)