My watch has stopped!
Discussion
I fell off a ladder a week ago and am flat on my back in hospital. Although I can move my arms (and legs, thank God), my watch, a Rolex GMT, has stopped. If I wave my arm around for s bit then it runs for a while but stops again a couple of hours later. Is this normal due to inactivity or have I damaged it in the fall? There are no obvious signs of damage (other than to me!). My wife is bring my swatch I wear for running in later this morning....
If it runs for 3 hours then you haven't done any major damage to it. the most likely damage from a drop / fall would be bent or broken balance pivots, which would (almost always) stop it pretty well dead, at least in some positions.
As toohangry says, try winding it manually. Unscrew the crown but don't pull it out, then wind it like you would with a normal manual wind watch. the difference is that, because it's automatic, you can keep winding it forever because the mainspring will never come up "tight" - the mainspring is designed to slip when fully wound. So give it a good 30 - 35 turns of the crown, which will get it to the fully wound, mainspring-slipping state and you should be fine.
Allowing for it getting a (very) little wind from you wearing it, you'll probably find that you have to repeat every couple of days to keep it going, or you could just wind it daily until you're back on your feet.
And don't worry, at least in the short / medium term, you won't cause the watch any problems doing this. In the longer term manual winding can cause extra wear on the automatic mech but it won't be an issue unless you're planning on malingering for a year or two
As toohangry says, try winding it manually. Unscrew the crown but don't pull it out, then wind it like you would with a normal manual wind watch. the difference is that, because it's automatic, you can keep winding it forever because the mainspring will never come up "tight" - the mainspring is designed to slip when fully wound. So give it a good 30 - 35 turns of the crown, which will get it to the fully wound, mainspring-slipping state and you should be fine.
Allowing for it getting a (very) little wind from you wearing it, you'll probably find that you have to repeat every couple of days to keep it going, or you could just wind it daily until you're back on your feet.
And don't worry, at least in the short / medium term, you won't cause the watch any problems doing this. In the longer term manual winding can cause extra wear on the automatic mech but it won't be an issue unless you're planning on malingering for a year or two
Variomatic said:
andy tims said:
toohangry said:
Why don't you wind it up?
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