Anyone use a Orbita Rotorwind watch winder?

[MilesB]

I recently got a new safe with these winders built in. For most of my watches they work fine (including a 5524G) but for a few of my watches, they don't seem to wind enough.

The watches that eventually run out of power are:

• Patek 5146G
• Laurent Ferrier Galet Traveller (micro-rotor)
• IWC Aquatimer

These winders have the rotorwind mechanism rather than the programmable one. They're currently set to 8 minutes, which is the highest setting.

Previously I've used SwissKubik winders, which worked fine for these watches.

Does anyone have experience with these winders and Pateks? Am I using it wrong or do I need to get a different winder?

[MILGAUSS88]

Well, the Patek and the Laurent both have unidirectional rotors, so the winder maybe going in the wrong direction to wind them. I could not find wether the Aquatimer is unidirectional or not,

[PatekSF]

I have used Orbita Bellino winders (programmable) for +15 years and they are quite reliable. I do go through a lot of Duracell “C” batteries, though.

A few months ago I bought the Orbita “Voyager” winder which is not programmable but meant to use while traveling. I’ve used it a few time and, so far, it’s performed very well.

[MilesB]

Originally Posted by MILGAUSS88

Well, the Patek and the Laurent both have unidirectional rotors, so the winder maybe going in the wrong direction to wind them. I could not find whether the Aquatimer is unidirectional or not,

Thanks for researching this, I thought that might be the cause. The rotorwind uses a motor to turn the watch, then "let's go" and because the cradle is weighted, it swings side to side.

But I have another Patek which was winding fine.

It turns out the problem was much simpler, the straps on all those watches were catching the side, which cause the swinging to slow down much quicker, hence not winding the watches enough. An adjustment later to tuck the straps away has resolved the problem.