You’ll notice how most of the crud in the watch is from the mainspring barrel that has migrated into the movement and then dried. Also the grease used behind the winding gears/stem, it has also dried to a powdery substance and found its way everywhere as can be seen here.
I know we all have our favorite types of lubrication, and that is fine, I’m all for individuals using what they prefer, freedom of choice. Most professional watch/clock makers swear by the products specifically made for this application. My query has always been that we never see a data sheet for these watch lubricants, we don’t know what the oil/grease contains. Most industrial/automotive lubes are obliged to provide a material safety data sheet, so not only do we know what the lubricants contain, we know if it will kill us if we heat it up, or eat it 😆
So with this in mind, and past experience with many various lubricants, I select my own grease, not watch grease.
Firstly, we want something that will provide a good anti friction surface, that will not dry up over time and contaminate the parts, that will retain its viscosity during use and not turn into a liquid under higher temps and run all over the place. We also don’t want a grease that contain conductive abrasives, like graphite or lithium. Also, we don’t want a waxy grease, these always separate over time.
I use a medium duty industrial synthetic grease, you can buy them in small tubes in an automotive store.
This is my personal choice and it doesn’t necessarily make it right nor wrong as we all have our ways 🙄
