Winding Automatic Watches (or not).!!
Discussion
A little advice required if that's OK chaps...
I've got a couple of quality automatic watches (Omega Seamaster 007 Ltd Edition and a brand new TAG Heuer Monaco).
As the Monaco is such a smart looking watch I seem to be wearing it daily in work, but wear my Omega in the evening and at weekends.
This is just about keeping both wound up enough to keep them going but occasionally one or other (or both) winds down to a complete stop.
If this is happening on a weekly basis to both, am I damaging them in the long-term?
I was thinking about getting a watch winder but a decent one that won't cause more damage is likely to cost me a couple of hundred pounds (unless you know of a cheaper quality alternative)??
Any advice wll be much appreciated.
Thanks all
Little Nicky
I've got a couple of quality automatic watches (Omega Seamaster 007 Ltd Edition and a brand new TAG Heuer Monaco).
As the Monaco is such a smart looking watch I seem to be wearing it daily in work, but wear my Omega in the evening and at weekends.
This is just about keeping both wound up enough to keep them going but occasionally one or other (or both) winds down to a complete stop.
If this is happening on a weekly basis to both, am I damaging them in the long-term?
I was thinking about getting a watch winder but a decent one that won't cause more damage is likely to cost me a couple of hundred pounds (unless you know of a cheaper quality alternative)??
Any advice wll be much appreciated.
Thanks all
Little Nicky
I do wonder what the point of automatic watches is sometimes, when it seems they're so much more hassle than a battery. With a battery you just change it when it stops. Non of this "automatic watch winding" or feeling that you have to wear the watch regularly to stop it wearing down.
Is the appeal of an automatic just a fascination with the movement, or do people buy them for the "convenience of not changing batteries"?
Is the appeal of an automatic just a fascination with the movement, or do people buy them for the "convenience of not changing batteries"?
mrmr96 said:
I do wonder what the point of automatic watches is sometimes, when it seems they're so much more hassle than a battery. With a battery you just change it when it stops. Non of this "automatic watch winding" or feeling that you have to wear the watch regularly to stop it wearing down.
Is the appeal of an automatic just a fascination with the movement, or do people buy them for the "convenience of not changing batteries"?
I have two. Some days I feel Monsterish, others not. It takes 30 secs wrist-chivvying to warm one up if it's stopped: and if I was that pushed for time I could do that while I wait for my tube. Is the appeal of an automatic just a fascination with the movement, or do people buy them for the "convenience of not changing batteries"?
Little Nicky said:
A little advice required if that's OK chaps...
I've got a couple of quality automatic watches (Omega Seamaster 007 Ltd Edition and a brand new TAG Heuer Monaco).
As the Monaco is such a smart looking watch I seem to be wearing it daily in work, but wear my Omega in the evening and at weekends.
This is just about keeping both wound up enough to keep them going but occasionally one or other (or both) winds down to a complete stop.
If this is happening on a weekly basis to both, am I damaging them in the long-term?
I was thinking about getting a watch winder but a decent one that won't cause more damage is likely to cost me a couple of hundred pounds (unless you know of a cheaper quality alternative)??
Any advice wll be much appreciated.
Thanks all
Little Nicky
Seriously, don't worry about it. Most of mine are autos and none of them are kept on a winder, doesn't phase me. I've got a couple of quality automatic watches (Omega Seamaster 007 Ltd Edition and a brand new TAG Heuer Monaco).
As the Monaco is such a smart looking watch I seem to be wearing it daily in work, but wear my Omega in the evening and at weekends.
This is just about keeping both wound up enough to keep them going but occasionally one or other (or both) winds down to a complete stop.
If this is happening on a weekly basis to both, am I damaging them in the long-term?
I was thinking about getting a watch winder but a decent one that won't cause more damage is likely to cost me a couple of hundred pounds (unless you know of a cheaper quality alternative)??
Any advice wll be much appreciated.
Thanks all
Little Nicky
My seiko is now about 10 or 11 years old and i've had to have the auto repaired once before. Just recently though, the link of the strap broke and i left the watch static for about 2 weeks until i could get to a jeweller for repair and in that time the watch has not worked properly since (it was previously accurate to the second throughout those 10 years). It just can't hold "charge" and frequently goes flat. Having said that, I'm likely to get it repaired again because I can't bear to part with it and honestly it hasn't really cost me anything.
mrmr96 said:
I do wonder what the point of automatic watches is sometimes, when it seems they're so much more hassle than a battery. With a battery you just change it when it stops. Non of this "automatic watch winding" or feeling that you have to wear the watch regularly to stop it wearing down.
Is the appeal of an automatic just a fascination with the movement, or do people buy them for the "convenience of not changing batteries"?
I've found that if I take my watch off I often put a different one back on for a change, and then when I go to put my usual watch on, it has stopped.Is the appeal of an automatic just a fascination with the movement, or do people buy them for the "convenience of not changing batteries"?
So now what I do is just not take my watch off at all. Unless to change the time for summer/winter.
Little Nicky said:
occasionally one or other (or both) winds down to a complete stop.
If this is happening on a weekly basis to both, am I damaging them in the long-term?
I was thinking about getting a watch winder but a decent one that won't cause more damage is likely to cost me a couple of hundred pounds (unless you know of a cheaper quality alternative)??
there's absolutely no risk of damaging a watch by letting it wind downIf this is happening on a weekly basis to both, am I damaging them in the long-term?
I was thinking about getting a watch winder but a decent one that won't cause more damage is likely to cost me a couple of hundred pounds (unless you know of a cheaper quality alternative)??
and I don't see how a watch winder could damage a watch either
however a watch winder is only useful if you have a complicated watch such as a perpetual calendar, moonphse, equation of time, etc... which would take ages to set correctly
for a simple watches in which it take less than a minute to set the time and date a winder is absolutely useless
Yes I agree, I think you need to have a collection of watches to get any use out of a winder. If you have a few watches you dont wear very often I think its good to put them on the winder for a while, watches are like cars in that they are better used,I tend to wear a watch for at least a month out of the year or put in on a winder for that period, keeps them fresh so to speak.
Again as the above post states unless its a perpetual calendar or something its not exactly much hassle setting a typical fast change date & setting the time should a watch run down.
Again as the above post states unless its a perpetual calendar or something its not exactly much hassle setting a typical fast change date & setting the time should a watch run down.
chris5150 said:
watches are like cars in that they are better used,I tend to wear a watch for at least a month out of the year or put in on a winder for that period, keeps them fresh so to speak.
Why is it better to keep a watch ticking? Some of my mechanical watches go for up to a year without moving and it's never caused them any harm.Scalper said:
there's absolutely no risk of damaging a watch by letting it wind down
and I don't see how a watch winder could damage a watch either
however a watch winder is only useful if you have a complicated watch such as a perpetual calendar, moonphse, equation of time, etc... which would take ages to set correctly
for a simple watches in which it take less than a minute to set the time and date a winder is absolutely useless
I agree its very unlikely to damage a watch if you let it wind down, it is after all what it is designed to do.and I don't see how a watch winder could damage a watch either
however a watch winder is only useful if you have a complicated watch such as a perpetual calendar, moonphse, equation of time, etc... which would take ages to set correctly
for a simple watches in which it take less than a minute to set the time and date a winder is absolutely useless
However, I can imagine one way in which a winder could damage a watch - some watches only "wind" in one direction, and if you were to put it on a winder that was turning the wrong way it would constantly force the rotor the wrong way, I expect that might do it some harm.
RichB said:
tertius said:
- some watches only "wind" in one direction...
So do they rely on people's wrists only turning in one way too? 
tertius said:
Well no, obviously not, but on the wrist it isn't a problem as the movement is much more random - I was careful to describe a watch winder turning *constantly* in the same but wrong direction.
the only effect of a winder turning in the wrong direction would be that the rotor spins freely and doesn't charge the watchlet's take as an example a patek 240
you see two pictures of the winding train, the second one with the rotor and bridge removed
when the rotor turns counterclockwise all wheels will turn and charge the mainspring
when the rotor turns clockwise the small grey wheel doesn't engage on the following one and therefore the rotor spins freely
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