Newbie question regarding Omega Speedmaster

[Tom-8fc21]

I inherited my late father's Omega Speedmaster a year ago and it's stayed tucked away in our safe since.
I decided to get it serviced and polished recently so I can start wearing it to formal events and I noticed that when I wind the watch, it never reaches the point where you can't wind it any more.
On most of my other automatic watches I'll wind it to a point where it becomes difficult to turn the crown any further, but the Speedmaster just keeps winding. I can sit there and wind it for a good 10 mins so I'm definitely not under-winding it.
Is this something unique to the Omega that I'm not aware of or should I take the watch back to the Jewellery Quarter for an inspection?

Thanks,
Tom.

[romeodelta]

Sorry for your loss.

It’s a Speedmaster Reduced, so automatic, not manual wind.

So no need to wind it, just get the rotor spinning a few times until it starts, set the time and enjoy.

[Tom-8fc21]

Christ what a plonker.
Thank you so much!

[Mr Squarekins]

As above. No need to wind. Wearing it will set it going. Automatic. Nice thing to keep from your dad.

[Tom-8fc21]

Thank you, it was an early retirement gift to himself but unfortunately he was killed in a hit and run whilst driving his 1950 Dellow Mk1.
The watch is bittersweet, I love how it looks and it reminds me of him, but it also reminds me of the accident and the week following in the QE.

It's just had a major service and a new glass so I intend to keep it in its current condition, I was just worried that I was causing damage by over-winding it.

[UnclePat]

As noted already, that’s the auto-winding Speedmaster version.

Auto-winding watches have a bridle within the mainspring barrel which allows the mainspring to ‘slip’, or rotate, around inside the barrel when the mainspring is wound tightly to full capacity. This is so that the auto-winding function doesn’t keep operating to turn the spring beyond full wind. That’s why you can wind it for so long - it’s just causing the already fully wound spring to harmlessly rotate around inside the barrel walls, so it neither winds further nor stops the crown being hand-wound.

By contrast, a manually-wound watch does meet a point of resistance when fully wound, when the crown cannot (or at least, should not) be wound further, lest the spring snap.

If you haven’t worn it for a while, just 10-20 crown rotations to get it going will do, and let the auto-winding take it from there, only manually winding again if it needs it i.e. you won’t be wearing it again for a day or so. Without being bothered to look up the exact power reserve of that model, it’ll run for circa 40 hours or so from a full wind without auto-winding, but for optimal rate accuracy & to avoid a surprise stopped watch some morning, a few manual winds doesn’t hurt. If you let it sit a long time - i.e. days, weeks - between wearing, then best to just let it run down and stop altogether.

Sorry for your tragic loss, I fully sympathise that it’s bittersweet. It is though a great memento of your father. Watches are such very personal items.

Edited by UnclePat on Thursday 18th November 11:31

Edited by UnclePat on Thursday 18th November 11:32

[gregs656]

If you listen carefully you can hear a difference when it is fully wound - a click as the mechanism to prevent over winding kicks in.

[romeodelta]

Tom-8fc21 said:

Thank you, it was an early retirement gift to himself but unfortunately he was killed in a hit and run whilst driving his 1950 Dellow Mk1.
The watch is bittersweet, I love how it looks and it reminds me of him, but it also reminds me of the accident and the week following in the QE.

It's just had a major service and a new glass so I intend to keep it in its current condition, I was just worried that I was causing damage by over-winding it.

It's a nice thing to have OP.

I have one and it's very versatile.

Looks great on a grey nato or brown leather.

Just an idea to switch it up and make it 'yours', while keeping the sentimentality. A next chapter in it's life, if you like.