Thank you for your vote of confidence in purchasing one of our fine Swiss timepieces. You have just joined a rebellious, individualistic lot of watch fans, enthusiasts, freaks, and people who love good value for their money.
Even though every LIV Watch is designed to last you through a lifetime of adventures, there are some things you ought to do once in a while to make sure your watch is always at its best.
Read your quick start card and our online manual
Ugh, who has time for reading manuals anyway? What a bore. We understand that time is precious. With that in mind, we supply a quick start card with our watches that cover the basics such as time, day, and date setting.
Please read it as you prepare your new treasure to adorn your wrist and garner looks of envy. You can also access the manual here.
At the time of writing this helpful guide, LIV Watches only offers automatic and quartz movements. Fans who purchased a quartz watch can skip ahead to more relevant sections because you don’t have to wind a quartz watch. Well, you can pretend, but it isn’t necessary.
Time for a little horology
Automatic watches offer wearers the luxury of converting their natural moments into power to wind the mainspring. If this is your first automatic, here’s a little horology for you.
Turn your watch over. If you have an exhibition case back (a sapphire crystal that shows off your impressive Swiss movement), you will see a half-moon shaped piece, called the rotor, that moves as you move the watch.
Go ahead, give your watch a side to side shake. The spinning of the rotor is winding your mainspring. Pretty cool, eh? Cool and very green too. But that’s another topic for another day.
My automatic has stopped! Now what?
A drawback to an automatic movement is that it will run down if not worn regularly or kept in a winder. Automatic movements have what are called power reserves. This is a rating in hours that tells you how long the watch will run if it is left off your wrist with the mainspring fully wound. Typically, power reserves range from 36 – 48 hours.
Here’s how to get an automatic up and running:
Note: Take your watch off. It is never a good idea to wind a watch or set the functions like day and date with the timepiece on your wrist. It puts upward force on the stem and over time can lead to damage.
Some automatics can be manually wound. Here’s how to find out if you have that movement.
Hint: Hold the watch firmly — no need having it fly out of your grip while doing this and breaking some priceless family heirloom.
Eventually, you may get the bug for a watch winder, especially if you have more than one watch with an automatic movement. These are a great addition for two reasons:
Winders are not complicated. They have one or more “heads” which are cylinders with pillows inside. You’ve seen a pillow already; your LIV Watch arrived on one.
Basic models run clockwise and counterclockwise. This is important because some watch movements should only be wound one direction (unidirectional) and others can be wound in either (bidirectional).
Here are four examples which, by the way, happen to be movements LIV Watches uses:
Operating your winder
Following the winder’s owner’s manual, yes, we know, get going by:
LIV Watches come with straps and bracelets that comfortably fit up to a 23cm/9” wrist. If your bracelet is too large, you have three options:
It is quite simple with the proper tools. So, if you plan of expanding your collection of watches with bracelets, you might consider investing in a kit. These kits will also come with the tiny screwdrivers you need to replace the batteries in your quartz LIZ Watches.
Hint: Keep the links you remove, and their pins in your LIV box should you need to add them back for any reason.
Caution: Your warranty does not cover scratching the IP coating on either case or bracelet while sizing. You’ve been warned!
Watches do not require a lot of cleaning unless you are into mud runs and other “up close and personal with nature” pastimes. The following sounds like we’re telling you to baby your baby. Well, why not? Your watch has your back on each adventure!
Hint: Do not:
Water-resistance primer
Class, the first order of business is to remind you that water resistance does not = waterproof. Are we clear? Okay, to maintain your LIV masterpiece in prime working order, do not wear it:
In other words, never expose your watch to any situation where it is hit by water under pressure.
Summary: Water under pressure will penetrate our best seals. Water pressure created by depth will not. It’s physics. Here’s a blurb from Study.com:
When a liquid is at rest, meaning that it is not flowing, we can determine its pressure at a given depth known as hydrostatic pressure. The way we determine this is through an equation: P = rho * g * d, where P is the pressure, rho is the density of the liquid, g is gravity and d is the depth.
See what you can learn when you become a LIV Watch fan? So, feel free to dive with your watch to its rated depth, but only if you are qualified for that dive.
Otherwise, lower your watch on a sturdy line of the appropriate length. At least your LIV watch has gone that deep now! Imagine the cred when you step up to the bar, nonchalantly flash your LIV masterpiece, and say to nearby admirers, "This baby's been to 100 m." This is another joke, folks.
Caution: Make sure you push the crown all the way in or screw it all the way down before attempting any dives.
Here are some handy water resistance stats to guide your water adventures, based on the rating of your LIV timepiece:
Maintaining water resistance
There is not much to do here. The key elements are the gaskets, those rubberized rings that form a watertight seal where the crystal, case back, and crown meet the watch case. Chronographs have gaskets inside the chronograph pushers, too.
The only gasket you can inspect with ease is the case back gasket on quartz watches. When replacing the battery, make sure the gasket is not damaged, broken, or torn. Before screwing the watch's case back down, make sure the gasket is in its proper position, most commonly a small groove in the case itself.
While in the water
After you get out of the water
Fortunately, you have invested in a premium watch, so problems are going to be few if any. Here are a couple of tips to help you through possible situations.
Your watch stopped running
Don’t panic! This is a piece of cake.
If your watch still does not run, contact us for immediate support and resolution.
Your second-hand skips several seconds at once
This is a convenient feature of some quartz movements. As the battery starts to die, the second hand starts moving in multiple second jumps. Please follow our friendly advice on battery replacement above!
Your date on your watch is wrong
You probably have it set 12 hours ahead or behind.
Here’s how to tell. For this experiment, we are going to assume it is 9:17 AM and your day/date function is not matching up with the calendar.
Note: Some watches have a fast date change function. Check your manual or quick start card for details. You usually pull the crown out to the second position on a three-position movement or the first on a two-position model. Turn the crown clockwise or counterclockwise to set the date.
You still need to account for the twelve-hour window. When the day/date turns over, the watch thinks it is in the AM part of the day.
Your chronograph doesn’t reset
Pull your crown out to the furthest position to reset your chronograph. Press both pushers simultaneously. Release both pushers. You should see the large chronograph seconds hand make a sweep and stop at the 12 o’clock position. Push the crown back in and screw it down if it’s a screw-down crown.
Your crystal is foggy
Condensation can form in situations of rapid temperature changes, or when the crown is not entirely closed in environments with a lot of steam or water. Condensation should go away on its own, as long as you keep the crown tightly closed and screwed in.
If the condensation in your watch does not seem to be disappearing after a week (or) if the watch has water inside of it, please contact us.
Ta-da, you’re done!
That’s it for care and feeding of your LIV Watch. If you are having a problem not covered in this guide, please contact us, and we’ll set things right.