New to watch technology

[trob441]

Good morning all.  I'm a retired fiber optics engineer with 35 years in my profession.  I own a single fine watch by  MUHLE GLASHUTTE,  CITY AUTOMATIC XIII containing a Muhle modified ETA 2824-2.  It's time for maintenance so I inquired into the current fees for such work.  I was expecting to have to pay for the services of skilled professionals but was not expecting to pay 25% of the price of a new watch.  As you might have guessed I'm in the habit of working with items considerably smaller than watch parts so taking apart a watch doesn't scare me, but obviously I want to do it properly.  If anyone can point me toward the best instructions including required tools and lubricants I would be most grateful.  I'm not worried about damaging this watch because after I'm gone this watch will be lost to history.  I have two high tech sons who will go no where near any kind of watch unless it was made of precious metals that could be sold.

                                                          Thank You

[Ishima]

Were these fees ones from the manufacturers or from other centralized workshops? try and find a watchmaker who carries out servicing on site, their fees are usually always significantly less. 
You'd probably spend half the cost of the repair on the lubricants alone. (although sold in small quantities, these quantities sold in are enough to last a watchmaker many full services.)

[bobm12]

Welcome to the site, trob! As Ishima says, tooling up is going to be considerably expensive...unless you want to start this hobby. Then it would be an investment...and still substantial.

In any case, that movement is fairly common and documentation, videos and walkthrough can be found in this site. Just do a search for eta 2824.

Cheers,

Bob

[jdm]

For servicing a movement the bare minimum tooling is not expensive, it can be about $15 including 2 decent quality drivers, one Swiss twezer and one Chinese movement holder. You will have to make it up for the rest. Lubricants are more expensive, I see that there are cheap ones too but I have no experience with them and they would not be right for a quality movement anyway. You would have to make it up for all the other accessories. Also you should get a timegrapher app working on a desktop or tablet probably using earbuds mic. Without it you cannot tell if the movement needs servicing before, and cannot tell the results after. Finally I strongly recommend that you practice first on a couple of $1 movements because while messing up a nice one is not crazy money, it bothers the pride and is against the very principles of watch repair. Before diving in all this consider well if it's worth your time and effort.

[dadistic]

Sticker shock for factory service has driven many people here -

It is quite possible to dive straight in to repair of a fine watch and be successful, but it is risky.

Check out this thread to read the story of a first ever service, happened to be a Rolex!

Self Servicing Rolex Submariner 3135

This thread will give you a good idea of what you are in for if you want to try your hand at servicing you 2824-2.