How perpetual is your Perpetual?

[jlovda]

I own a four year old Exp II 216570. If I give the watch a really good wind, the watch usually dies five to seven days later at about 5:00 AM. It seems the watch only "recharges" itself about 80% during the day so on subsequent days the mainspring has 60%, 40%, 20% and finally doesn't make it through the last night. Am I just a couch potato or is the rotor mechanism not completely free?

[csaltphoto]

When I first got my sub I went about 6 months without winding (Just to see how perpetual it was). It never stopped.

[dchernikoff]

Both my 2001 GMT-II (bought used in 2014) and my 2019 DJ36 have never died on me. I will wear one for 5 or 6 months or more, then switch to another because I want a change. I've never had to wind them when I'm wearing them. They are as perpetual as i am!

Do you, uh, acutally MOVE during the day? Or just lay there? (Sorry, just joking. You might want to have it serviced...)

-Dan

[AF_Rob]

Can you feel the rotor? Perhaps your suspicion is correct. At 4 years, you should be within a year of warranty. Worth a look, I'd say.

[NachoNeal]

I'm very active. So once it's up and running, I don't ever wind.

[Gab27]

The last time I wound my Submariner was Daylight Savings when I last set the time. I haven't unscrewed the crown since. At no point in time has my Submariner ever stopped running. However, I wear the watch every day.

What you are experiencing does not sound normal. Even if you are not very active, your wrist movement should still be charging the watch.

[Osmin]

Do you wear it non stop? Or put down 12 hrs a day into the box?
Does not sound normal for me.

[SearChart]

Rotor axle could be dry, reversing wheels as well. Quite common on 4+ yo 31xx movements. Dried lubricant increase the resistance, gunks together with metal dust. This causes the automatic module to not work effectively.

Have it looked at by a watchmaker, preferably RSC.

[Calatrava r]

Originally Posted by SearChart

Rotor axle could be dry, reversing wheels as well. Quite common on 4+ yo 31xx movements. Dried lubricant increase the resistance, gunks together with metal dust. This causes the automatic module to not work effectively.

Have it looked at by a watchmaker, preferably RSC.

So much for the notion, "they are built like tanks."

[brandrea]

Originally Posted by SearChart

Rotor axle could be dry, reversing wheels as well. Quite common on 4+ yo 31xx movements. Dried lubricant increase the resistance, gunks together with metal dust. This causes the automatic module to not work effectively.

Have it looked at by a watchmaker, preferably RSC.

Nice insight Bas.

[Tim Plains]

Seems like you don't move around enough. I know the consensus is to wind them 40 times from stop but I don't even do that sometimes, set the time/date, rotate the watch enough to get the seconds hand going, put it on the wrist and go, haven't had one stop on me yet.

[onyourbikes]

I put on a watch in 2004 as I walked out of the dealer with it and wore it daily until 2019. Never wound it once. Rarely even took it off. The only time I touched the crown was to change the date on short months and resync the time as it drifted a little like all mechanical.

[StanGMT]

Just for the record, like onyourbikes, I walked out of the shop with my new 1675 GMT in 1967, wore the watch for about 16 hours a day and never needed to wind it in 53 years.

Stan.

[tifosi]

I have never manually wound a daily worn watch in 15+ years. That ain't right.

[rgwarden]

The OP doesn’t even say if he wears it or not ie can we just have clarity that this isn’t a thread about how long it takes to wind down off wrist? Or is he (really) saying he winds it every week and wants to know if that’s normal? If so, it isn’t, at all.

[Tools]

Only you can know your daily routine and if it provides enough wrist movement to wind your watch.

It is much more common now days with many folks spending more and more time at a computer station or in activities that do not provide enough wrist rotation to keep your watch wound.