Top off in the Morning or Watch Winder Overnight

Discuss Christopher Ward watches
Leon O
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Top off in the Morning or Watch Winder Overnight

Post by Leon O »

Given my inconsistent level of activity, WFH status, and tendency to remove my watch to use weights and resistance machines, my automatic watches tend to stop.

Would it be better to hand wind the watch in the morning or leave the watch on a watch winder over night?

Thanks

Leon
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Re: Top off in the Morning or Watch Winder Overnight

Post by JasperCat »

All the automatics I use in rotation are on watch winders… these run for 12 hours overnight and then rest for 12 hours.

Since doing this, I’ve not had one of them stop for over six months and they also keep incredible time… I guess because they remain wound properly.

There are arguments for both camps… some also say never hand wind automatics and others don’t keep them on winders.

Like you, I WFH and replace with an Apple Watch for exercise, so I’m just happy they’re always ready to go when I need them :thumbup:
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Re: Top off in the Morning or Watch Winder Overnight

Post by village »

I am very firmly against the use of watch winders.

If they are kept on the winder they are continually accruing wear needlessly. IMO it is far better to keep them in a watch box and either wear them regularly in rotation or,if they haven’t been worn for a little bit,hand wind them a touch and let them run. There is absolutely zero harm whatsoever in hand winding an auto if the functionality allows.
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Re: Top off in the Morning or Watch Winder Overnight

Post by Leon O »

Thanks for your different perspectives :) For now I'll keep experimenting.

Leon
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Re: Top off in the Morning or Watch Winder Overnight

Post by kiter65 »

Kept in a safe..set the time a few winds and off you go :D
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Re: Top off in the Morning or Watch Winder Overnight

Post by thomcat00 »

I don’t own a winder. My collection is small enough to wind and set what watch options I might want to wear for a given day if they are stopped.
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Re: Top off in the Morning or Watch Winder Overnight

Post by Bahnstormer_vRS »

You're clearly not doing enough exercise / movement during the day.

Once I've put an automatic watch on my wrist in the morning and taken it off in the evening, it doesn't stop for at least 24 hours.

In the morning, I will put a stopped watch on my wrist and it is usually ticking within 15-20 minutes. I then set the date/time and off we go.

Simples. :eek: :eek:

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Re: Top off in the Morning or Watch Winder Overnight

Post by Amor Vincit Omnia »

^^^ Pretty much so, Guy.

However, I have a tendency to wear the same watch for several days, a week or even more these days.
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Re: Top off in the Morning or Watch Winder Overnight

Post by TheBeatles »

This is the one from Amazon I use:-
XTELARY Automatic Rotate Watch Winder 8+9 Leather Storages

Price seems to have shot up since my purchase.

I used it fully during the novelty stage. Mabuchi motors are whisper quiet. I have mine in bedroom.
It was interesting watching them turn this way and that whilst in operation. Only watch it didn’t keep going was the CW Jumping Hour.

Plus it restricts me to 17 watches.

Now it’s just a big watch box, and I am the same as Guy with regards to getting them started in the morning.
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Re: Top off in the Morning or Watch Winder Overnight

Post by Leon O »

:thumbdown:
Bahnstormer_vRS wrote: Sun Jul 18, 2021 10:07 am You're clearly not doing enough exercise / movement during the day.

Once I've put an automatic watch on my wrist in the morning and taken it off in the evening, it doesn't stop for at least 24 hours.

In the morning, I will put a stopped watch on my wrist and it is usually ticking within 15-20 minutes. I then set the date/time and off we go.

Simples. :eek: :eek:

Guy

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As I stated above, I take my take my watch off for some morning exercises. My G-Shock is visibly abused. : :shock: Admittedly, I don't get enough physical activity during the day. Between my job and my physiological condition, I remain glued to my screens for 10+ hours a day. I do not have the luxury to get up and walk around during the day. Therefore, most of my watches are quartz.

I don't mind winding my manual watches in the morning, hence my question about managing the power reserve for automatics.

My apologies if I sound testy, but I feel like I'm being patronized by responses such as the one above. I acknowledged my life style in the 1st sentence of my first post.

If I'm going to reset a watch during the day, why not just top it off in the morning or put it on my watch winder overnight?
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Re: Top off in the Morning or Watch Winder Overnight

Post by JasperCat »

The sole reason I use winders for my "daily wear" automatics (the first three in my signature) is simple... convenience :D

Whilst there are various opinions as to whether hand winding (some) automatics is safe or wise, there are enough scare stories out there for me to consider that hand winding these could be considered a last resort activity. I've read that some Sellita (and ETA?) movements have lighter stamped gear wheels connecting the crown stem, and thus might be prone to gear wheel failure if wound more than a minimum.

Of course, a stopped automatic can indeed be put on the wrist and then with a bit of movement, it should be going quite soon... however, that means at some point I need to remember to then set the time (and ideally date, otherwise why bother having it). If I forget then my watch fails its basic function of telling the time :thumbdown: Whilst I love the aesthetics of my watches (and yes they're jewellery too), they still have to function as a watch!

I have two SH21 watches. The C8 Power Reserve, which I actually do fully wind every day (sometimes I forget and miss a day or two, but it's got 5 days power reserve anyway :lol:). However, the C65 Trident SH21 LE is on a winder and usually worn one or two days a week. I did hand wind this a few times in the early days, but it (seems) to have a different gearing ratio from the C8 and so is much harder to wind, not impossible, just harder.

There are arguments that winders will subject the watch to great wear than leaving them to wind down and (maybe) stop. I'm sure this is valid (after all they are mechanical devices with moving parts), however it's also arguable that an automatic being worn by a very active person might be subjected to even greater wear over time. There is probably not right or wrong answer on this, but to mitigate the wear, all my winders (Barringtons) are set to the minimum Turns per Day for each movement, and they only wind for 12 hours per day anyway, so I'm happy that this is minimising the wear. With regular servicing, it's likely they'll keep going long enough anyway :thumbup:

The other automatics and manual watches, which are not "daily wear", I consider as "special occasion" watches and so they do indeed sit in the watch box and then wound enough to get going, set and worn... as and when I need them.

As for the C65 AM 2 VEV SE (quartz)... I set this once (five months ago), wear it when I want and then pop it back in the box... it's never stopped and has gained precisely 2 secs in that whole time :shock: Again, arguably we should all be wearing quartz watches :lol:

However, we're all different, so as always YMMV :D
C1 - Bel Canto, Grand Malvern 5 Day
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Re: Top off in the Morning or Watch Winder Overnight

Post by Leon O »

JasperCat wrote: Sun Jul 18, 2021 5:24 pm The sole reason I use winders for my "daily wear" automatics (the first three in my signature) is simple... convenience :D

Whilst there are various opinions as to whether hand winding (some) automatics is safe or wise, there are enough scare stories out there for me to consider that hand winding these could be considered a last resort activity. I've read that some Sellita (and ETA?) movements have lighter stamped gear wheels connecting the crown stem, and thus might be prone to gear wheel failure if wound more than a minimum.

Of course, a stopped automatic can indeed be put on the wrist and then with a bit of movement, it should be going quite soon... however, that means at some point I need to remember to then set the time (and ideally date, otherwise why bother having it). If I forget then my watch fails its basic function of telling the time :thumbdown: Whilst I love the aesthetics of my watches (and yes they're jewellery too), they still have to function as a watch!

I have two SH21 watches. The C8 Power Reserve, which I actually do fully wind every day (sometimes I forget and miss a day or two, but it's got 5 days power reserve anyway :lol:). However, the C65 Trident SH21 LE is on a winder and usually worn one or two days a week. I did hand wind this a few times in the early days, but it (seems) to have a different gearing ratio from the C8 and so is much harder to wind, not impossible, just harder.

There are arguments that winders will subject the watch to great wear than leaving them to wind down and (maybe) stop. I'm sure this is valid (after all they are mechanical devices with moving parts), however it's also arguable that an automatic being worn by a very active person might be subjected to even greater wear over time. There is probably not right or wrong answer on this, but to mitigate the wear, all my winders (Barringtons) are set to the minimum Turns per Day for each movement, and they only wind for 12 hours per day anyway, so I'm happy that this is minimising the wear. With regular servicing, it's likely they'll keep going long enough anyway :thumbup:

The other automatics and manual watches, which are not "daily wear", I consider as "special occasion" watches and so they do indeed sit in the watch box and then wound enough to get going, set and worn... as and when I need them.

As for the C65 AM 2 VEV SE (quartz)... I set this once (five months ago), wear it when I want and then pop it back in the box... it's never stopped and has gained precisely 2 secs in that whole time :shock: Again, arguably we should all be wearing quartz watches :lol:

However, we're all different, so as always YMMV :D
Thanks! I've been thinking today that if I don't move enough during the day to to keep the movement wound, am I actually not adding that much wear if I put the watch on the winder for 10 hours a night. At the rate of 650 rotations per day, I don't see there being much chance for excessive wear.

After all it can take a 14 hour rest while on my wrist during the day. :D
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Re: Top off in the Morning or Watch Winder Overnight

Post by Leon O »

Update: I brought a NN C60 Trident 600 Pro on my recent vacation to Disney World. I wound it ~40 twists on Monday morning. I walked about 12,000 steps on Monday and another 12,000 on Tuesday. Wednesday morning I found that the C60 had stopped at 5:45 am.

Still in pristine condition, DHL will be picking it up on Monday for its return trip to Maidenhead.

While have not given up on automatics, if I pick up another watch with Selliita SW200 movement I will consider it to be a manual wind.
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Re: Top off in the Morning or Watch Winder Overnight

Post by Geefiasco »

Some very interesting responses and scary reading as a new watch collector/obsessor that has bought around 25-30 in the past 8 months! I recently narrowed down to just 8 but I still struggle to even wear 3 a week due to working from home everyday.

I usually do take them all out of the watch box and give them all a full wind at least once a week, but am I correct in saying this could even damage my watches?

I’m dreading having to narrow down even further to a measly 3 watch collection.
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Re: Top off in the Morning or Watch Winder Overnight

Post by Amor Vincit Omnia »

I’ve yet to damage a watch by winding it!
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