How dumb is this?
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deejuic

Original Poster:

396 posts

206 months

Thursday 4th June 2009
quotequote all
Irony Of The Bernard Favre Manually-Wound Watch Crown Winder

by Ariel Adams — May 7th 2009 at 3:00PM



A lot of people ask me if there are devices that will help them keep their manually-wound (hand wound via the crown) mechanical watches wound, so that they don't have to wind them each day or so. Automatic mechanical watches have all sorts of winders that mimic the oscillation needed for the watches to be wound - that would occur as though you were wearing them. Automatic watch movement winders are easy to find, and devices that wind manually wound watches are more rare, and of course expensive.

Manually wound watch winders all pretty much look the same. The watch is placed into a vice like grip, and an adjustable claw of sorts is hooded over the crown. This claw is attached to an arm that spins in the right direction to wind the watch. The machine must be capable of sensing resistance so that it can stop spinning, so as not to damage the movement with over-winding.

The whole point of a watch winder is to be convenient, so that you don't have to wind the watch yourself if you are not wearing it. Thus, it is utterly ironic that the beautiful Bernard Favre Crown Winder must be manually wound itself. That's right, the Crown Winder device, is a manually wound watch winder for manually wound watches. This is starting to sound awfully ironic and perplexing. The nature of the device requires that you wind it yourself, so that it can wind your watch, itself. Yea, I don't quite get it either. Even if the power reserve in the Bernard Favre Crown Winder is longer than your watch's power reserve, it still has the same downfall. Though I don't think this is the case as I believe it has a 24 hour power reserve cycle.

The Crown Winder looks great, and I have no doubt is of a high quality commensurate with the luxury pricing, but is it just me, or did the designers completely gloss over the point of why people even want to invest in manually wound watch winders in the first place?

Ariel Adams publishes the popular watch review site aBlogtoRead.com.

Tags: bernard favre, BernardFavre, Crown Winder, CrownWinder, manually wound, ManuallyWound, mechanical, watch winder, WatchWinder

Pesty

42,655 posts

279 months

Thursday 4th June 2009
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Crown Winder device is a manually wound watch winder for manually wound watches

laugh

Frederick

5,814 posts

243 months

Thursday 4th June 2009
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So you need a watch winder winder to wind your watch winder incase it runs out of power reserve to wind your watch incase your watches power reserve runs out from not being wound...

Try saying that quickly when you're drunk!!!

deejuic

Original Poster:

396 posts

206 months

Thursday 4th June 2009
quotequote all
And at a price of $4400 US, you'd have to be drunk to even consider buying it!

Taffer

2,288 posts

220 months

Thursday 4th June 2009
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[XZibit] Dawg, we put a watch winder on your watch so you can wind your watch while you wind your watch! [/XZibit]

What a pleasantly useless piece of technology!

andy_s

19,785 posts

282 months

Friday 5th June 2009
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They do an automatic version, but you have to strap it to your wrist and go for a jog.

toohuge

3,469 posts

239 months

Friday 5th June 2009
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I can just about see the point. It is a technical showcase, hence why it will appeal to people. I have a UN which i love not because it is the most accurate watch in the world but because i appreciate the craftsmanship. One of my beaters is an atomic controlled eco drive powered citizen. This keeps time much better, never runs out of power etc but i don't love it. For me, the citizen is the ultimate keeper of time but my UN is a watch.

tuffer

8,961 posts

290 months

Friday 5th June 2009
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Do they sell manual limb movers? Something to manually move your arm in a winding movement.

deejuic

Original Poster:

396 posts

206 months

Friday 5th June 2009
quotequote all
http://www.watchcases.com/mawawise.html

Well at least there's an alternative that isn't dumb. It is however very expensive!

Wadeski

8,821 posts

236 months

Friday 5th June 2009
quotequote all
there's a cool japanese word for "totally pointless inventions" that solve a need people dont have, or a need they do have in a way that makes the device deliberately useless.

this is a genius example of that philosophy, except they actually are trying to sell it smile

Soft Top

1,479 posts

241 months

Friday 5th June 2009
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deejuic said:
And at a price of $4400 US, you'd have to be drunk to even consider buying it!
Better not show this one to AB:

http://www.pistonheads.co.uk/gassing/topic.asp?h=0...

paulpsz008

463 posts

231 months

Friday 5th June 2009
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At that price? Employ someone to do it for you????

andy tims

5,598 posts

269 months

Saturday 6th June 2009
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Seems like the answer to the question nobody asked.

whitney44

200 posts

253 months

Monday 8th June 2009
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Is that a wind up?

andy tims

5,598 posts

269 months

Monday 8th June 2009
quotequote all
whitney44 said:
Is that a wind up?
laughlaugh

Taffer

2,288 posts

220 months

Monday 8th June 2009
quotequote all
Wadeski said:
there's a cool japanese word for "totally pointless inventions" that solve a need people dont have, or a need they do have in a way that makes the device deliberately useless.

this is a genius example of that philosophy, except they actually are trying to sell it smile
'Chindogu', I believe.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chind%C5%8Dgu