General question on automatic watches

[Gio G]

Morning all,

Looking to add another watch to my small collection, however one thing that concerns me is that if an automatic watch is not worn, for say 5 days, what effect does this have on the watch? I am equiring around the longegivity of it..

Maybe a watch winder is the best course of action.. however never really liked them.

[Don1]

You can get some stunning single winders, travel ones that will sit in a draw out of sight, doing their thing until it's time to put it on.

[Gio G]

Sounds great... where do you get them from?

[digger_R]

Sorry for hijacking you're thread!
but....
I'm about to start a bit of a collection too and wouldn't mind some guide on how much to pay etc

[lowdrag]

In a word - nothing. I've had two Breitlings for nearly 15 years, one for summer and one for winter. One just sits in the drawer while I wear the other. Both are pretty accurate (well within tolerances) and never been serviced either.

[NDA]

I have a few automatic watches and they live in a multiple watch-winder. It looks pretty naff (despite being made of nice wood, it's very 'nouveau' looking). I was told when buying my Breguet that they shouldn't be allowed to run down and that a moderate tension in the main spring combined with the parts always moving is far better for the mechanism.

Since investing in an automatic winder (about 2 years ago) the service intervals have increased - so it seems to work.

Watches of Switzerland used to sell winders.

[ian in lancs]

Check these people out - I bought from them a couple of years back and I'm very pleased with the winder. http://www.timedesign.de/home_e.html keeps my rare Automatic Tag working whilst I wear my Breitling Aerospace. As well as the mainspring issues mentioned above the lubrication will dry out if not kept wound/operational.

You'll need to find out the turns/day and the rotation direction from a site like this http://www.orbita.net/pages/17120.htm The watch winder I bought can wind CW, ACW, Both and a wide range of rotations/day. IIRC my Tag is CW, 650/day.

Edited by ian in lancs on Sunday 28th October 18:44

[bigsi]

for watchwinders I suggest you take a look at ebay. My wife bought me one a couple of years back, shipped in from HK I think, SO much cheaper than retail shops...i recall we paid something like $100 when a similar branded high street model was north of £500!

cheers
simon

[uktrailmonster]

lowdrag said:

In a word - nothing. I've had two Breitlings for nearly 15 years, one for summer and one for winter. One just sits in the drawer while I wear the other. Both are pretty accurate (well within tolerances) and never been serviced either.

Same experience here. No obvious problems from running autos down and leaving them standing for months at a time. My 3 autos have been fine without a winder. Oldest is nearly 15 years too. I was still thinking of getting a winder though, because it is a bit of a pain winding and re-setting time and date etc all the time.

[Gordon Brown]

I got my 2 watch winder from Ebay for £70. Nice polished wooden box with space for 6 more. Adaptor looks a but tatty which probably belies what is behind the mechanism but looks OK in the bedroom. I think a decent double winder is £200. Google it.