While today's watches can take quite a beating and still keep ticking, there are a couple of things that you should keep in mind which will increase the life of your watch considerably.  Some of these are obvious, some of these are more obscure, but all of them are simple to do.

1. Keep your watch away from strong electrical currents.  Household appliances are unlikely to negatively effect your wrist watch, but stronger electrical currents or magnetic fields have the potential to mess up your watch's internal workings.
2. Do not let your watch come into contact with chemicals.  This is pretty obvious, but if chemicals get onto or into your watch it will cause corrosion and discoloration.
3. Trying to keep your watch away from sudden shocks.  All watches are shock resistant, but to varying degrees.  Usually your watch manual will specify how much of a shock your watch can handle.  This is particularly important if you work in such a field like construction.
4. Avoid extreme temperatures.  Extreme heat will shorten the battery life of your watch, while extreme cold can actually stop the watch hands from moving.
5. Just because your watch is water resistant doesn't mean that you should shower with it on.  While all water resistant wrist watches can be showered with, it is a better idea not to do so.  While you're washing your watch will getting roughed around a little bit, increasing the likelihood of water or moisture getting underneath of the dial.
6. Cleaning your watch regularly (via instructions provided) only takes a couple of minutes and will improve its lifespan and appearance.
7. Store your watch in soft cloth or something similar while its not on your wrist.  This will keep it free from dust and clean.

Caring for your wrist watch can be a difficult task, as there is a lot of misleading information available on the internet.  Naturally, you want your watch to last as long as possible, but there are certain things that you could be doing which are decreasing your watch's life span.  Read on to have the top five myths about watch care debunked.

Myth 1: You can take a shower or swim in the pool or ocean with your watch crown open

If your watch crown is open and you expose it to water, then moisture will develop internally.  At this point, the only remmedy is to take your watch to a jeweler and have it completely dissembled, cleaned, and dried, which is expensive.  You should never expose your watch to water while the crown is open.

Myth 2: Dropping a watch that contains a sapphire crystal will not damage it

This is also false.  Dropping a watch that is powered by a sapphire crystal will most likely shatter the crystal, thus rendering your watch useless.  The crystal would then have to be replaced, which is also an expensive task.  Try not to drop any watch on the floor, even if the watch does not use a sapphire crystal.

Myth 3: My watch is perfectly accurate

While we would all like to believe that our watch is a perfectly accurate time keeper, the truth of the matter is that all watches will gain or lose a couple of seconds a month - approximately 30 to 60 seconds a month.  The higher quality your watch is, the less time it is likely to lose.

Myth 4: When I bought my watch I was told that I wouldn't need to service it

A lot of retailers will attempt to sell you a watch by promising you that it doesn't need servicing, thus keeping the price down.  However, all automatic wrist watches should be serviced once every 3 to 5 years.  Doing so will increase its lifespan and ability to accurately keep time.

Myth 5: You can't wind an automatic watch

Yes, you can manually wind an automatic watch, and it is recommend to this this once every other week.  Doing so will keep the watch more accurate over extended periods of time.