Enquiry on Winders

[novaol]

A friend of mine had a 19 year DateJust which was left on and off to wind. She called me one day for help, (thought was her notebook problem). Went to her place and she point her watch on her bedside table and told me that it wouldn't move no matter how she tries to wind the watch. I had to hit the side of the watch against my palm and it begins to move again. It is quite troublesome if one does that. I later brought the watch to a friend in China Square and had the watch service and the technician opened the watch, the lubricant oil tried up which locks all mechanism.

To me I would try to wind not too full if you are rushing for time, and have it moved as what I do understand is that the heartbeat of the watch will get slower (or not completely swing from left to right end to end) and that will affect your watch accuracy in long run.

is watch winders really necessary? last time, i have bought a taiwan made winders from the accessories section. it broke down after a about half a year. and the distance between the watch is too close for comfort during winding. so dun bother to go bring it for repair. so just use it to store watch now.

for now, if my watch stop. i just manual wind it, then wear it and off i go. if i dun wear it, i just leave it alone and let it stop.

now my question is, will winding it only when need to be use do damage to the watch? i dun mind spending a few mins doing some winding and adjustment.

[triton]

with the recent discussion on winder. i have attached the links to 2 articles which is easy to read with some technical details.

Article on Winder part I
Article on Winder part II

[TheKing]

Hi Ten10, I'm a newbie and this is my first post.
Could I use a timer for brand ABC and run it for 6 hours per day, so that TPD can reduce to 800? ....Provided the winder runs on AC, of course.

U also have to set the timer to do 1 hr on and 3 hr off cycles to allow the mainspring to unwind than to be continuously rotated.

Also watches with moonphase should be kept wound, cos resetting the moonphase can be a pain.

[ten10]

Well said Bro TheKing... Watches with complications are usually more time consuming to reset!

But one point to note though, no matter what the turn & rest timings are, its VERY IMPORTANT to know the motor's RPM too. Do see my calculation given previously in this thread for TPD.

Just to have your example of a 1hr rotating and 3hr rest...

If the motor turns at 8rpm, then...
1hr would give 480turns (in that hour)
Now, if it goes on the whole day, then the TPD would be 1440/240 x 480 = 2880TPD

Whereas, if the motor turns at 2rpm, then...
1hr would result in 120turns (for that hour)
Rotating the whole day, the TPD would achieve 1440/240 x 120 = 720TPD

These are some 'secrets' that a good winder manufacturer controls the Turns per Day!