Automatic watch query

[tonyg58]

All, just bought my first automatic watch and a winder for it.
Only question - is it an idea to let the mechanism run down a bit occasionally or do owners just keep them wound permanently?

[Ninjin]

If you only wear the watch say, once a month, then the winder is not recommended.

If you wear it regularly (every few days) and it has stopped, then it maybe more convenient to keep it on a winder.

But in my opinion a winder creates un-necessary wear on the movement for sake of convenience.

There is no advantage to keep the watch running other than convenience.

[Weslake-Monza]

I thought the recommendation for an automatic was to never let it run down. However, I suppose whether you leave it run down for a couple of days is quite different from leaving it run down for a couple of months. What does the manufacturer of your watch recommend?

[eccles]

Weslake-Monza said:

I thought the recommendation for an automatic was to never let it run down. However, I suppose whether you leave it run down for a couple of days is quite different from leaving it run down for a couple of months. What does the manufacturer of your watch recommend?

I've been into watches for forty years and I've not heard that before.

I have a couple of hundred watches, mostly automatic, many vintage, some modern.
Some don't get worn for years at a time, but just fire up and run nicely when I choose to wear them . Never had any issues at all.

Obviously if a quartz watch has the battery go flat you run the risk of the battery leaking and ruining the watch. Kinetic and solar watches don't like being flat for a long time, sometimes the capacitor doesn't 'come back' from being flat and you have to change it.

[Debaser]

Weslake-Monza said:

I thought the recommendation for an automatic was to never let it run down. However, I suppose whether you leave it run down for a couple of days is quite different from leaving it run down for a couple of months. What does the manufacturer of your watch recommend?

I ve never heard of that. Some of mine go untouched for a year or so with no issues.

[L1OFF]

Debaser said:

Weslake-Monza said:

I thought the recommendation for an automatic was to never let it run down. However, I suppose whether you leave it run down for a couple of days is quite different from leaving it run down for a couple of months. What does the manufacturer of your watch recommend?

I ve never heard of that. Some of mine go untouched for a year or so with no issues.

Me too, my Rolex GMT2 in now 25 years old and just had its 1st service (lube had dried up apparently). Never had a problem with leaving it unwound in a watch box for months between wearing (worked in London so stopped wearing it to the office)

[troc]

Only reason to use a winder, IMHO is if you have a perpetual calendar complication.

[DB15]

troc said:

Only reason to use a winder, IMHO is if you have a perpetual calendar complication.

Indeed. With some Pateks the watch box it comes in is actually a winder