How often should I wind it?

Wind it once a day at the same time. This keeps the tension in the mainspring even, which helps the timekeeping stay consistent. Do it in the morning before putting it on your wrist. Stop turning the crown when you feel firm resistance. Forcing it past that point will snap the spring.

I inherited my grandfather's watch which has been sitting in a damp drawer for forty years and the hands seem stuck, should I try to force them?

Leave the hands alone. Forcing the crown will strip the gears or break the setting lever. Old oils congeal into a glue-like substance over decades, and forcing movement just shears the metal teeth off the wheels. A watchmaker needs to strip the mechanism down. They wash the hardened grease away in an ultrasonic tank before applying fresh synthetic oils.

Can I swim with this watch?

Keep antique wristwatches far away from water. The original gaskets perished decades ago. A splash from a tap will rust the steel pinions inside.

The glass on the front has lots of tiny scratches all over it making it quite hard to read the dial properly in bright sunlight, is this fixable?

Acrylic crystals polish up easily. A watchmaker uses a mild abrasive paste to buff out shallow scuffs on plastics. Deep gouges usually require a full replacement crystal, which is a routine job. Mineral glass is another matter. Scratches in early glass crystals rarely polish out without distorting the view. Those usually need replacing with a custom-cut piece.

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Antique Wristwatches

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Originally adapted from pocket watches by soldering wire lugs to the case, an antique wristwatch is a portable mechanical timepiece worn on a strap for quick reading without digging into a waistcoat.