What's with people shaking their Rolexes?

[jrs146]

Wind...shake... Who cares? Do we really participate on this forum to criticize people about not winding their Rolex to start it? Sheesh let's grow up folks!


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[Justinmg]

Personally I'm not shaking my Rolex, not that I think it's going to hurt it but if the movement has stopped aren't you going to have to set the time anyways? So while the crown is out fully wind and your done. If not shake it or do what ever you want, it's your watch.

[Dirt]

Originally Posted by jrs146

Wind...shake... Who cares? Do we really participate on this forum to criticize people about not winding their Rolex to start it? Sheesh let's grow up folks!


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Agreed.
Either way it doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things.

[motoikkyu]

You can get the auto-wind rotor moving by gently tipping the watch from 12 to 6 a few times, face up, there is no need for shaking. There is too much violence in our society already. Watches will vary: I have a 1018 that starts literally the second I pick it up out of the drawer, and a beloved 1803 that requires a few tips back and forth and 2 cranks of the crown to get started. Both keep excellent time, by the way.

This led to a moral dilemma for me once: I had a Tudor submariner that was purchased as genuine back in the 90s, but turned out to be 90% fake. HOWEVER, what a great ETA movement! Ran like a charm and kept perfect time. I do not support the faking of watches and will not knowingly wear a fake. My resolution was to purchase a generic/sterile dial for the watch and have it installed. So, I have a beautifully running "Snowflake" brand snowflake for those days I just need to tell time....

[Tri-Tip]

Originally Posted by Porter

I like to wear the watch bit loose and I'm quite active person! Also love when my little daughters come to me and hold the watch with their little hands like hell an play with it! Sometimes the watch gets tight on the medium forearm so I shake it to make it to go back to my wrist! Seems I shaking the watch but for different reasons!! :)

Me too.

[pd999]

Originally Posted by jrs146

Wind...shake... Who cares? ... Sheesh let's grow up folks!

[No SUBctitute]

Originally Posted by Chewbacca

shaking a finer timepiece from a dead stop is the second worst thing you can do to a timepiece. ... first is dropping it in a airplane toilet.

not that I do the former...but can you explain why?

[HiloBeMagical]

Originally Posted by Chewbacca

...shaking a finer timepiece from a dead stop is the second worst thing you can do to a timepiece.

... first is dropping it in a airplane toilet.

Oh my... please tell us what was going on when you decided that holding a Rolex over an airplane toilet was exactly what the situation called for?

I'd like to avoid that situation in the future. :D

[MTROIS]

Just attended a Horology 101 class in New York last night, taught by three Rolex watch technicians: overall recommendation with automatic watches is to not use the crown to wind the watch in order to not impose any unnecessary mechanical stress on gears and pinions. Not saying it is not possible and also not saying it will break it... But just unnecessary. Recommendation is to start wearing the watch to get it started again and then adjust time.
He clearly said, manual watches are best for collectors as you can wind these as much as you want.
So, the recommendation I often see around here to provide a full 20 to 40 rotations every so often is actually superfluous. If you wear your automatic movement... It will keep on ticking!! :)

...and still no need to shake it!! ;)

[Tony-GB]

This is all very well, but can you shake a manual watch to start it?

[Boaters]

Probably habit from wearing the Valjoux 7750 and feeling the wobble .. wobble

[Baco Noir]

So does the OP imply that one should not mountain bike, play golf or tennis, shoot guns, split wood, or do any number of other things that can shake a Rolex?

Really? Then maybe we should all put our fine timepieces under glass and admire them from afar.

[T. Ferguson]

Some shake it to get it running. I always figured that's what the crown is for.

[nokia]

Take it off. Enjoy the feeling of the gears winding. The insides are a work of art. Treat them like so.

[J!m]

Maybe they had Seikos prior, which don't wind via the crown?

[JJL]

Shaking a watch on your wrist is usually done for 1 of these 2 reasons:

1. to adjust the watch if it's sitting too low or high on the forearm/wrist (for those wearing a little tight or loose)
2. to garner attention / draw peoples eyes to it

I would assume most likely it's the first one. Living in New England, with the extreme hot/cold weather throughout the year I keep my oyster at the same size, however depending on what I'm doing my wrist will shrink/swell - therefor sometimes I have to do a little shake to adjust my watch and get it to a comfortable location on my wrist.

[nokia]

Agreed. I am guilty of #1 myself. Recently however i trained myself to unbuckle it, slide it down to normal, and re buckle.. Feels better inside not vigorously shaking it into place..

Originally Posted by JJL

Shaking a watch on your wrist is usually done for 1 of these 2 reasons:

1. to adjust the watch if it's sitting too low or high on the forearm/wrist (for those wearing a little tight or loose)
2. to garner attention / draw peoples eyes to it

I would assume most likely it's the first one. Living in New England, with the extreme hot/cold weather throughout the year I keep my oyster at the same size, however depending on what I'm doing my wrist will shrink/swell - therefor sometimes I have to do a little shake to adjust my watch and get it to a comfortable location on my wrist.

[FritzW]

Originally Posted by JJL

Shaking a watch on your wrist is usually done for 1 of these 2 reasons:

1. to adjust the watch if it's sitting too low or high on the forearm/wrist (for those wearing a little tight or loose)
2. to garner attention / draw peoples eyes to it

I would assume most likely it's the first one. Living in New England, with the extreme hot/cold weather throughout the year I keep my oyster at the same size, however depending on what I'm doing my wrist will shrink/swell - therefor sometimes I have to do a little shake to adjust my watch and get it to a comfortable location on my wrist.

Agree with #1. Since I wear mine slightly loose to accommodate for swelling when warm (as most do) I will give a quick shake to preposition. To wind, I like the tactile feeling of the gears when I turn the crown.

[Spartacus]

What you do with your watch is none of my business. Shake it, wind it, polish it, call it a Rollie, don't wear it in water, wear it in water, don't rinse it after being in salt water, leave the stickers on, wear it to sleep, don't wear it to sleep, take it on vacation, don't take it on vacation, don't wear it in the shower, or wear it in the shower, wear it in the hot tub, wear it on your dominant hand, leave it laying on it's face, paint the fence with your Rolex on, play golf, go running, rafting, gambling, or grocery shopping, give your Rolex a nick-name, .....it's none of my business, enjoy your watch however you want...it is yours!

[FritzW]

Originally Posted by Spartacus

What you do with your watch is none of my business. Shake it, wind it, polish it, call it a Rollie, don't wear it in water, wear it in water, don't rinse it after being in salt water, leave the stickers on, wear it to sleep, don't wear it to sleep, take it on vacation, don't take it on vacation, don't wear it in the shower, or wear it in the shower, wear it in the hot tub, wear it on your dominant hand, leave it laying on it's face, paint the fence with your Rolex on, play golf, go running, rafting, gambling, or grocery shopping, give your Rolex a nick-name, .....it's none of my business, enjoy your watch however you want...it is yours!

Would you wear it in a box? Would you wear it with a fox? would you wear with a mouse? Would you wear it a house? would you wear it on a plane? would you wear in the rain? Where would you wear your watch?

[rq3]

Originally Posted by jjdesq

I don't get it, why are people vigorously shaking their watches? I've seen videos on youtube and posts about this or that happening when they shake their watch, but why are people shaking their watches?

Probably just a basic misunderstanding of what the rotor does. Although it CAN spin, it doesn't need to, nor was it designed to. The "rotor" is weighted so that gravity will cause it to "hang" with the heavy side down. The movement of the user's arm (say, swinging them while walking, or just normal everyday activity) rotates the watch and it's movement around the rotor, not the other way around. In other words, the "rotor" is designed to remain as stationary as possible, while the movement "winds itself up" around it.

The reversing gears in the mechanism ensures that the mainspring gets wound regardless of the direction of the swing.

Reference: very old patents and observing the movement with the back off the watch.

[Easy Rhino]

Originally Posted by wolffram

I have been wearing my sub 24/7 for the past 12 months without manual winding via the crown. I am probably less active than the average, but it's still going

Actually, this is exactly how I wore my Sub the first nearly ten years. It was actually when it ran down in normal use that I knew something was wrong with it.

That something wrong was that I shocked it severely enough to damage the axle and axle bearing jewel.

In other words, if your Rolex in normal use doesn't stay running without manually winding, it may be time for service.

[Rolbreitling]

Sorry I'm new to Rolex so please take it easy on me.

I have a Breitling Superocean, I can hear it winding on my wrist. Sometimes I feel the nudge on my wrist when its winding. Does Rolex has the same mechanism as Breitling? Does it wind differently?

[FritzW]

Breitlings have very aggressive rotors. My Colt nearly shakes my arm if i move it suddenly. Rolex's you do not feel. At least i dont feel my GMT at all.

[CRM114]

Gosh, never knew things were so complicated with all the shaking, tilting, swirling, whirling, worrying about gears and pinions.....

For decades maybe I've been doing it wrong. If my auto watch has run down and stopped, the time (date/day) needs to be set. That's a given unless you don't believe time marches on. To accomplish this, Rolex thoughtfully provided a crown.

The mainspring also needs to be wound, or the watch would just sit there, dead, limited to being right twice a day once per month. And guess what?...Rolex also provided a means for me to do this using the very same crown. Furthermore, they even included a clutch thingy in the crown winding mechanism to prevent over-winding. It's almost as if Rolex somehow knew people would wind their auto watches using the crown.

Call me crazy or lazy, but it's so easy to accomplish those 2 tasks if I'm forced to pull the crown out in order to set the time. And wouldn't you know it, after unscrewing the crown and pulling it out the winding function is the first position, before the setting position(s), almost as if Rolex is inviting/daring me to use it to wind the mainspring before setting the time and/or date!

So for decades before putting on a run-down auto watch to wear I've been using the "Wind, Set, and Forget" method. I believe I'll stick with using this easy, simple capability they just happened to provide and forgo any fancy techniques or worry about what to do if my watch runs down.

[Aceldama]

Originally Posted by jrs146

Wind...shake... Who cares? Do we really participate on this forum to criticize people about not winding their Rolex to start it? Sheesh let's grow up folks!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Seems some people only come here to vent and name call. Winding and water seem to be the Rolex Forum's equivalent of Kim Kardashian's ass. You just want to see how many people you can set off with your question.

[FritzW]

Originally Posted by CRM114

Gosh, never knew things were so complicated with all the shaking, tilting, swirling, whirling, worrying about gears and pinions.....

For decades maybe I've been doing it wrong. If my auto watch has run down and stopped, the time (date/day) needs to be set. That's a given unless you don't believe time marches on. To accomplish this, Rolex thoughtfully provided a crown.

The mainspring also needs to be wound, or the watch would just sit there, dead, limited to being right twice a day once per month. And guess what?...Rolex also provided a means for me to do this using the very same crown. Furthermore, they even included a clutch thingy in the crown winding mechanism to prevent over-winding. It's almost as if Rolex somehow knew people would wind their auto watches using the crown.

Call me crazy or lazy, but it's so easy to accomplish those 2 tasks if I'm forced to pull the crown out in order to set the time. And wouldn't you know it, after unscrewing the crown and pulling it out the winding function is the first position, before the setting position(s), almost as if Rolex is inviting/daring me to use it to wind the mainspring before setting the time and/or date!

So for decades before putting on a run-down auto watch to wear I've been using the "Wind, Set, and Forget" method. I believe I'll stick with using this easy, simple capability they just happened to provide and forgo any fancy techniques or worry about what to do if my watch runs down.

[HogwldFLTR]

I feel shaken by this whole conversation...

[CRM114]

Originally Posted by Aceldama

Seems some people only come here to vent and name call. Winding and water seem to be the Rolex Forum's equivalent of Kim Kardashian's ass. You just want to see how many people you can set off with your question.

What's a more desperate situation?

A life-or-death, underwater timing crisis of some sort that necessitates the crown be unscrewed, pulled, and used to wind one's Rolex while still submerged in order to survive,

or,

Surviving a nuclear war and go 27 months believing oneself to be the lone survivor until one night in the darkness tripping over a sleeping Kim Kardashian's ever-increasing ass, and she's the last woman on earth.

[Onikage]

Originally Posted by MTROIS

Just attended a Horology 101 class in New York last night, taught by three Rolex watch technicians: overall recommendation with automatic watches is to not use the crown to wind the watch in order to not impose any unnecessary mechanical stress on gears and pinions. Not saying it is not possible and also not saying it will break it... But just unnecessary. Recommendation is to start wearing the watch to get it started again and then adjust time.
He clearly said, manual watches are best for collectors as you can wind these as much as you want.
So, the recommendation I often see around here to provide a full 20 to 40 rotations every so often is actually superfluous. If you wear your automatic movement... It will keep on ticking!! :)

...and still no need to shake it!! ;)

That's interesting because an automatic watch is essentially a manual wind with the addition of a rotor. Both have the same gears and pinions in operation when winding. Sounds like nonsense to me.