To Wind, or Not to Wind

There is a lot of talk and discussion in the watch world regarding the necessity vs. practicality of a watch winder.  For those who might not be too familiar with this topic, a watch winder is a device that is used to keep an automatic watch wound even when you are not wearing your timepiece.  Since automatic watches are powered by a mainspring that is wound by an oscillating weight, a watch winder simulates the human movement by rotating the watch in clockwise, counter-clockwise, or bi-directional circular patterns.

Now that you are familiar with the function of a watch winder, you need to ask yourself if a watch winder is right for you.  The beauty of having a winder is that you can have multiple automatic watches in your “rotation” without ever needing to worry about winding and resetting the piece before you wear it.  Now, with that being said, if you only have 1 automatic watch a watch winder might not make sense for you (since it gets almost daily wear and never has the chance to run down completely) where a watch winder makes the most sense is for the collector that has several watches that they would not like to worry about setting before wearing.  There can also be situations where a watch winder is a near necessity, take for example, a watch that has a complex perpetual calendar feature would require elaborate resetting after the watch has stopped.

Most winders have several different speed and direction settings on which the watches can be wound.  It is vital that you check with your authorized dealer to make sure that you are using the proper, most efficient setting for your watch.  All watches DO NOT have the same winding criteria, so make sure to ask the right questions.
Watch winders come in all shapes, sizes, and colors.  You can get single head winders, or watch winders that can handle multiple units at once.  The winding box can be compromised of many exotic materials from the rarest woods to carbon fiber.

Josh Nigut
jnigut@hpjewels.com
303-333-4446