What is a watch winder, and do I need one?
What is a WatchWinder? A WatchWinder is a mechanical device used to wind an Automatic Watch. WatchWinders wind automatic watches by rotating the watches over a set time period, stopping and starting again as needed. A watchwinder is a maintenance tool, and keeps your watch in top notch working shape. Do you need a WatchWinder? Yes if you own an automatic watch you need a watch winder! A watchwinder is a luxury product, but an automatic watch is a “super luxury product”! An automatic watch also called a self-winding watch is a mechanical watch which is wound by the movement of the wearers wrist instead of by a winding stem, though most automatic watches have winding stems and can be wound by hand winding. Rolex made the first automatic watches and their movements are called “Perpetual”. All automatic watches are mechanical watches,typically with a balance wheel mechanism for regulating the motion. This type of watch has a mainspring, which winds by the motion of the wearer’s arm, instea
As noted in section 2.1, collectors who have more than one automatic watch may have “difficulty” keeping any one watch going continuously. This leads to increased inconvenience if calendars and moonphases must be reset. A solution has been invented – the automatic watch winder. The idea is quite simple: strap the automatic watch to a motor, which then moves the watch enough to keep it wound when not worn on the wrist. That way, one can choose to wear any watch at any time, and not have to reset the time or calendars. In theory, this device should be simple and cheap. In practice, it’s not as easy as it sounds. First, while an automatic watch has an overwind protection mechanism to avoid damage to the movement, if the overwind mechanism is constantly used for hours at a time (i.e. though constant turning, rather than the unpredictable movement of the human wrist), the lubrication of the mechanism is worn out faster. This means that watch winders must be designed to only make so many tur
As noted earlier, collectors who have more than one automatic watch may have “difficulty” keeping any one watch going continuously. This leads to increased inconvenience if calendars and moonphases must be reset. A solution has been invented – the automatic watch winder. The idea is quite simple: strap the automatic watch to a motor, which then moves the watch enough to keep it wound when not worn on the wrist. That way, one can choose to wear any watch at any time, and not have to reset the time or calendars. In theory, this device should be simple and cheap. In practice, it’s not as easy as it sounds. First, while an automatic watch has an overwind protection mechanism to avoid damage to the movement, if the overwind mechanism is constantly used for hours at a time (i.e. though constant turning, rather than the unpredictable movement of the human wrist), the lubrication of the mechanism is worn out faster. This means that watch winders must be designed to only make so many turns per
