I’ve myself two automatics and a couple quartz watches that I have been rotating. Is a watch winder a good thing to have to keep the automatics revved up? Or is it more of a novelty?
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Watch winder?
- Thread starter natenaaron
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My wife was asking about this the other day as she has a decent brand automatic. I do not own one. My recollection is that this is a controversial area with some saying there is nothing wrong with allowing an automatic watch to run down and the movement in an automatic winder is unnatural and tends to wear the watch out, and others saying it is better to never let an automatic wind all the way down. I would be interested in the current thinking myself.
garyg
B&B membership has its percs
I have a moon phase watch that takes an engineering degree to rest all the functions, and it has been on the winder, but aside from that I let them sit usually. I'd be interested in some learned opinions as well, I can see the logic either way, but would tend to letting them run since a single watched person would do that anyway, and makers would have to design for that ..
unless your watch has multiple complications that would be a hassle to reset, i wouldn't recommend a winder.
i own several high end timepieces and it really isn't an issue to wind and reset if the reserve is gone. plus, as much craftsmanship and robustness a watch has to remain accurate, they're still mechanical pieces and springs do wear down. an extreme (but not so incongruous) analogy...imagine if your car was forced to idle 24/7.
i own several high end timepieces and it really isn't an issue to wind and reset if the reserve is gone. plus, as much craftsmanship and robustness a watch has to remain accurate, they're still mechanical pieces and springs do wear down. an extreme (but not so incongruous) analogy...imagine if your car was forced to idle 24/7.
I have two automatics and a quad watch winder, the winder is in the closet unused. I used it for quite awhile but I just found it easier to set and manually wind when needed.
I have been using watch winders for 20 plus years. They normally last about 10 years and then need replacing. Cost is about $100 so that works out to less than $1 a month. These keep my Rolex in top running condition.
My suspicion is that leaving an infrequently worn watch on a winder does add a bit of unnecessary wear. Especially given how winders seem to rotate through the same plane(s) at a constant frequency which does not match the randomness of wrist movements. But if my watch had extra complications or I needed it running on Monday morning after a long weekend I would use a winder without worry. I think the wear issue is minimal with modern well built movements, but I would think twice for a older watch.
+1. Here is an interesting article on the pros and cons. When I took my Rolex in for maintenance the tech recommended a watch winder rather than only winding your watch. As the article states if you wind a watch you must be careful not to overwind it. And the place that did the maintenance did not sell watch winders.
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Interesting read. Thanks
After my 4th automatic I bought a double watch winder. I liked it so much I bought another. I would imagine it is better for the watch and I don’t like having to set the watch every week or two when I want to wear one of the automatics.
I bought an electric watch winder to keep a nice Longines Admiral wound up. I had it going in the stepsons room when he moved out. I forgot about it for quite a long time. When I went looking for the watch I found it still in the watch winder but the watch winder had stopped working. The motor had died. Mine was a cheapy, if you get one pay for a good one.
Good article ackvil. I thought this was a controversial area.
On thought I had that the article triggers is that high end watch stores do not seem to keep their watches on winders, used or new. The article suggests that sitting in a store unwound tends to adversely affect the watch.
I get it for a watch that is complicated to set.
I do not see any reason to ever hand wind an automatic, BTW. Just move it around for a while, set it, and then wear it. I do not think automatics are capable of hand winding.
My watches are not all that expensive. It is easy for me to justify not having a winder, regardless of whether I would have one if I had expensive watches. My guess is that I would not bother even if I did.
On thought I had that the article triggers is that high end watch stores do not seem to keep their watches on winders, used or new. The article suggests that sitting in a store unwound tends to adversely affect the watch.
I get it for a watch that is complicated to set.
I do not see any reason to ever hand wind an automatic, BTW. Just move it around for a while, set it, and then wear it. I do not think automatics are capable of hand winding.
My watches are not all that expensive. It is easy for me to justify not having a winder, regardless of whether I would have one if I had expensive watches. My guess is that I would not bother even if I did.
I have a watch winder with 4 winding slots and 8 more storage/display in the front section. I used it for a time but haven't run the winder for a while, just using the box for storage and display. I noticed that some automatics wound just fine and kept good time, others ran down over a period of a few days even on the winder. I never really figured out why this happened but if you plan to buy a winder with the goal of keeping the watches wound all the time it is probably worth checking that it is suitable for your brand of watch. The only advantage I see of using a winder is that it would potentially save setting the day/date functions and possibly some other complications but this is hardly a big problem - just set against my cell phone when I set up the watch I'm going to use for the next few days. I have heard comments both ways on the need to keep a watch running all the time to protect the movement. Probably if you use it at least once every couple of months it's fine to let it run down but I'm no expert. Some of my best watches are not autos and they seem fine being wound when needed - perhaps once a month or so.
As much as I admire and really want a nice mechanical watch, this is why I just get quartz watches. I change watches daily and have a handful of them. Every time I think I need a nice mechanical watch, I wonder if wearing it once a week is a pain. I remember from my childhood having to wind watches. It wasn’t that big a deal. But now, you have to buy some machine to keep it wound. I would get a nice mechanical watch but don’t want to have a machine winding it when I’m not wearing it.....
garyg
B&B membership has its percs
My GMT2 did its first 15 years either on my wrist or on the winder before needing service, and even then the only reason I did was it stopped meeting COSC .. barely. On the other hand, the Panerai hand wound required an overhaul at well less than half that interval, and running considerably less. From that I'd say winder=good, but the sample size is way too small. These days two watches are on the winder, the Pam & a couple other autos sit idle until they go on the wrist.
I have a mid-70's era Seiko that had set for a number of years and when I started wearing it, it just would not run for more than about half a day. I took it to a jeweler and when I picked it up he said no charge. When I asked him what was wrong with it, he said it needed winding. He said that if a watch gets wound down the average wrist movement throughout a day is not sufficient to keep the watch running for a day. Especially for me as my typical day is spent behind a desk. I forget the number but he said it was a ridiculous number of rotations it took to achieve a complete winding (which obviously is not what we are looking for). Something like 5000 or 8000.
Now I keep it in the winder and it keeps perfect time. I rarely wear it except maybe on weekends when I'm running errands or working around the house.
Now I keep it in the winder and it keeps perfect time. I rarely wear it except maybe on weekends when I'm running errands or working around the house.
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