Watch winding to keep running when not wearing

[Tenags89]

Should you keep your watches wound when not wearing them? For automatic watches, should you use a winder to keep wound, hand wind the crown if you're not wearing for a few days or just let it die and wind up when you wear it again? For manuals, do you wind even if you haven't worn or won't be wearing? Whether manual or automatic, should you keep your watches running?

[El-Duderino]

You are going to get a myriad of responses to this question. So here's mine :)

From what I've seen from previous threads, the answer is "It depends."

You shouldn't let your watches sit for months/years totally unwound as it apparently can mess with the mainspring. If you are talking just a few days or weeks it is probably fine to let either a mechanical or automatic sit that long without winding.

As for keeping automatics wound, it depends on whether they have complications that are a pain to set (non quick set date, moonphase, etc) and whether you are okay with having to reset them if you let them die.

A winder is a nice way to keep your watches wound if you have several in a rotation that would die before they make it back on your wrist. Hand winding automatics is generally thought to be okay in moderation, but normally people seem to recommend allowing the automatic movement to do the heavy lifting. So, if the watch is dead, wind it 15-20 times, throw it on your wrist and head out the door.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[T. Ferguson]

Personally I see no reason for a watch to be running when it's not on your wrist and needed to tell time, unless like a perpetual calendar it is a real pain to set. Like any machine, a watch incurs wear and tear when it's running, not when it's sitting idle.

My wear habits are such that my watches will wind down and sit idle for significant periods of time. So it makes no sense to have them running and incurring wear in a drawer or on a winder. I'll wear a watch for a week or three and then it will sit until I get around to it again, which may be a month or two. Your habits may vary. Say you have three watches you rotate daily. If they have the typical 48 hour power reserve then all three will essentially always be running anyway unless you hack them. So it probably doesn't matter if they are on a winder. With a winder you won't pick up a watch and have to set it because it happened to run out of power a few hours before you went to wear it.

For my watches that have extended periods of hibernation I will give them a wind every couple of months just to keep everything grooved.

I like setting and winding my watches. It's a happy ritual that doesn't take more than a minute and I enjoy the interaction. I'm actually a little disappointed when I go to put on a watch and find it is running.

BTW, there is no issue manually winding an automatic watch, even regularly. From the information I've digested problems with the crown are caused as much by non-use as over-use.

Follow your bliss.

[improviz]

Same here, I let them sleep when I'm not using them, and once a month or so give them a full wind/quick cycle through the dates to keep date wheel lubed, and let it spin down. I don't see much sense in letting them run when not in use, wears out the gears etc. more than when they're standing still.

[KarlS]

Search the forum...covered ad nauseum ...cheers