Watch Winders, Yes or No? (Watch this before using one!)
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- Опубліковано 21 жов 2024
- When is it appropriate to use a watch winder for your luxury watches?
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Many types are available, many settings are offered, and many types of automatic watch have different requirements. Should I use a watch winder? How many times should I set my watch to wind? How often? Can a watch wear out on a watch winder? In this highlight of a previous broadcast, Watch Specialist/Media Director Tim Mosso and Director of Watchmaking Michael Michaels discuss critical watch winder knowledge for collectors of automatic luxury watches.
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Video and content by Tim Mosso and Pheline Jerome.
If I were concerned about premature wear of my watch movements, I’d leave them in the safe or buy a quartz watch. You can wear most modern luxury watches, all day, every day, and only have to service the watch every 10 years. How bad can it actually be for a watch to sit in a good winder that gently does the appropriate amount of turns per day? I would think the shock a watch receives while wearing it would be much worse, and I don’t really concern myself with that either, within reason. I broke the mainspring of an Oris watch while riding a snowmobile. I’ve never heard of someone’s winder breaking their watch.
I like to rotate 4 watches throughout the week, and if I don’t get to one in time, it becomes prohibitive for me to have to reset it. I occasionally change watches several times in one day, I need to be able to grab and go. I find myself more likely to wear a watch if it’s running and the time and date are correct. Because I like to have my watches set precisely from an accurate source, it can take me several minutes to set one watch, which I don’t enjoy. Keeping my watches set this way allows me to keep track of the health of the movement by noting if it is running +- a constant second per day deviation. Also I feel that constantly opening and closing the crown, and hand winding a watch, are potential areas of damage that are avoided by using a winder. How many crown, stem, stem tube thread or date wheel issues have you seen from setting watches? My watches are mostly sealed shut and when it’s time, I will have them serviced, regardless of usage.
The winder I have has a turn per day setting and when it reaches the amount of turns that I have set it to, it stops moving. My winder is only active for 6 hours in a 24 hour period, it sits idle for the other 18 hours. Within that 6 hours of activity, the winder is making 1 smooth rotation approximately once every 8.3 seconds, which comes out to 1.5 hours of actual movement. I just don’t see how this can be worse for the watch than wearing it on the wrist.
My final, and perhaps most important point, is that my watch winder is beautiful. It is a joy to look across the room and see the handsome leather, glass, and wood case with 2 timepieces prominently displayed. The top of the winder opens to reveal 3 other watches and a 4th inside of a handsome travel case.
In the days of high technology that we live in, digital time is everywhere, we don’t really need a mechanical Watch to tell time, we wear them because they are beautiful, and functional works of art and engineering, just like my watch winder.
This is really great advice. If I know for sure that I'll be using a watch within a few days, I'll go ahead and put it on a winder, but otherwise it's certainly true that it is better to let it wind down to allow the movement to "relax." Less trips to the service center! Another thing I would point out is that for those of us who are truly passionate about mechanical timepieces, there is joy in winding and setting a watch before heading out the door. It is a ritual of mindfulness that deserves one's time and ought to be built into one's plan for the day so that enjoying the process will not be rushed. Just like taking the time to appreciate a finely crafted distilled, brewed, or fermented beverage and/or hand-rolled cigar. How fortunate we are to have these experiences. They must be savored. Thank you.
So you’re basically saying top brands do not make watches meant to be worn every single day as that impacts the movement? Frankly makes no sense. Lange makes their own watch winder that they supply with some of their watches. And no - they do not all incorporate a perpetual calendar function. What is even more silly is that according to you it’s ok to put a relatively more complex perpetual calendar on a watch winder but not a basic self winding watch!
Even Rolex and Patek made their own watch winders in the not so distant past. I’ve had one for the last 20 years with zero issues; the convenience cannot be beat if you have many watches.
Simple, short and clear, thanks for the info, great video.
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- WatchBox Team
I use a Tapo Smart Plug which allows me to schedule what time the watch winder to be active/running. If a watch's movement is of a certain TPD, should one only set the winder and tapo smart plug so that it reaches a certain percentage of the TPD? What percentage would that be?
There's nothing wrong with keeping a spring under constant tension. A spring doesn't need "time to relax". That's a complete fallacy. In fact, it is more detrimental to wind and unwind a spring than it is to keep it under tension.
@Tony Ochoa Indeed sir, also true for magazine springs. That's what caused me to research the issue in the first place.
Someone told me it keeps the oils distributed. And it’s bad for them not to be moving. Any basis for that?
The wolf designs winders are the only ones that I know of that have "sleep cycles" and they do all the pre set rotations in an 8 hour period and then rests for 16 hours. This feature cleaverly eliminates the problem of keeping the watch at full wind.
But they are not cheap. Does any one know of any other brand that has this feature? They claim that they are the only ones who do it and is a patented system, but is it really true?
yes i would like more info on this but i guess the guys here at watchuwantinc have no clue too if the delay start is good or not, hence the no reply.
Great information.
How about using the winder 8-11 hours during the day, get the power reserve to say 75%, then shut off the winder until the next day or when the power is down to 40-50%.
Would that be almost like wearing the automatic like what Michael suggest?
Thanks
If your watch doesn't have a power reserve meter how are you going to know it's state of wind at any given time?
It's certainly helpful for a GMT II
Thanks for this I was about to buy one
so, this is what I'm going to try:
I bought a cheap cyclotest watch winder and I've built a wooden box to make it look nicer on the wall. I'm plugging it into a high quality timer that allows for different intervals of "on & off" time.
Any thoughts?
so far Im $48ish in, I had scrap wood and an extra timer from my grow room.
If I own many watches, I will let it wind down but I only have 3 watches which I rotate frequently and all their power reserves is about 48hrs. If I wear watch 1 watch each day, by the third day when I go back to my 1st watch it would have stopped. Am I wrong to think that setting the time every 2-3 days will puts more stress and wear on the movement, crown, etc...?
First off. Yes, do let your automatic watch wind down every once in a while. Why not. As far as the dangers of a winder. BULL CRAP. I wear my auto everyday and at night. My watch shows that it is fully wound 24/7. It's fully wound by 9:30 a.m. everyday. I wear it the rest of the day. I am active. It continues to wind throughout the day. OMG it never suffers over winding. So what in the hell are you talking about about. Stop the lies about winders. Just stop it.
So let it run through the day when you’re at work. Turn it off when you get home and let the movement rest?
Watches are made to be running 24/7. Letting your watch die and sit is more harmful than keeping it running. Dead watches can lead to lubrication and oil inside to gel up and ruin your movement.
Start Delay, START DELAY, START DELAY.... A good quality watch winder has a delayed start feature guys. Why would anyone make a video in regard to watch winders and not even mention the start delay feature once; especially, when the only highlight of the video SPECIFICALLY points out that the winder does not allow the watch to burn off its power reserve. The winder DOES allow the watch to burn off its power reserve before it winds the watch up again. It's not winding 24/7.... This isn't the only misleading video about watch winders on the interweb either. I just don't get it. 🤷🏻♂️ I'm not trying to be super critical and I really appreciate the content, but it is mind boggling to some extent. 👍🏼 I don't wear my automatic watch everyday and I use my watch winder for storage most of the time, when it's not on my wrist. I set the start delay at 70 hours and it winds my piece twice a week for a total of about 6 hours the ENTIRE week. My watch is ready when I am and the main spring stores energy and realeses energy safely. Can you please explain to me what I'm missing?
Can i not just have it winding for 4-6 hrs a day and thats it?
I agree you should not keep your watches on the winder all the time. I use watch winder sparingly once a week than let your watch wind down and rest for a few days. It is also bad to keep winding your automatic swiss watches with the crown they have been known to break because of this, thats why I wind mine once in a while with the watch winder.
So if I put them in a watch box and turn the box off at night we are all good?
I only wear my automatic watch couple hours a day is it bad to daily hand wind it so it would not stop running and be charged? (it is not a screw down crown) thanks.
So is it bad for the watch if you never take it off? I only take mine off to shower.. so from what your guy is saying I'm assuming if its on your wrist 24/7 its not getting a chance to wind down??
Not necessarily! Some watch winders will keep the watch at maximum tension for a prolonged period of time, which is the issue. When a watch is on your wrist there's lots of times for it to wind down - when you're sitting at your desk or asleep for example - before getting partially wind back up by your action. But automatics on wrists won't be kept at maximum tension for indefinite periods, which is where the problems occur. Hope this helps!
What about timed winders spins every 30min for 10min
Good to know!
Very interesting. Thanks for the insights. By the way - you misspelled “Cheif” Operating Officer. Chief 😉
Great advice indeed.
Thanks for asking the questions; it was a great one!
Best,
Tim
doing a good job
You lose respect when your logo mis-spells "CHIEF"
I have never been more confused after this, 10 videos later and everyone is saying different things
Go visit a watch store and look at the dozens of watches sitting there not running. Rolex, Omega, Breitling..... All just sitting there not running for months to years at a time. Makes you think.
@@dr.emilschaffhausen4683 pretty sure it's more of a pricing/costs issue. A store putting hundreds of watches on winders requires high electricity and fit out costs
@@SW17CH I would require cost, but would Omega, Rolex, etc allow them to do it if it wasn't safe for the watches?
A watch exspurt giving advice on watch maintenance that doesn't wear a watch. "Please don't use a watch winder as you will lower your maintenance bills" I sit my two favs in a boxy out on display, summer comes and my two favs are always wound. Everything gets a rest in the winter as I let the quartz do the work. Purist nonsense, modern watch winders are a lot more sophisticated than these two clowns!
Welcome to the channel! If you stick around, you'll learn that these are 2 of the most knowledgeable guys in the industry. Mike has had leading watchmaking roles at brands including Hublot, Chopard, and Breitling so he knows his way around an automatic movement. Thanks for sharing your opinion!
--Team WatchBox
WatchBox Studios sorry but this is BS. A. Lange and Sohne basically states on their website that their self winding watches can be stored in watch winders without qualifiers.
@@9443-c5b Sure, they want your service business.