Watch Winder Review by Alex Linden
Watch winder is a device designed to wind up an automatic watch, in particular when you are not wearing the watch all the times. There are different kinds of watch winders available in the market, from a simple single-motor kind of rotator, to a sophisticated electronic full function automatic watch winder. Watch owners have to make a detail research as to what kinds of winder is suitable for their automatic watches.
New watches nowadays are designed with more and more features and complications; such as moon phase, perpetual calendar, multi time zone, etc. For most of us owning these kinds of sophisticated watches, trying to wind it up and reset it every few days is a tedious task we would rather not involve with. In particular when we have a few watches and do not wear the same watch every day. Thus using an automatic watch winder will not only provide the convenience to have our watches fully wound up all the times, and ready for us to wear it anytime we want. Without worrying having it reset and wind up every so often.
There are certain watch winder that is nothing but a watch storage box affixed with a low quality motor. Once the power is turned on, the motor simply “spins” the watch in one direction. To stop the rotation, one has to turn off or discontinue the power source manually. These kinds of watch winders are usually selling at a low price, and is either made of plastic or thin particle-board. The consequence of using these kinds of watch winders in the long term could be very costly.
This kind of rotator simply rotates or spins the watch continuously. As with any other mechanical device, the continuous rotation will induce unnecessary stress on the watch's main spring mechanism, and thus reducing the useful mechanical life of the watch. Also, your watch could very well require an unnecessary overhaul of your watch sooner than expected caused by the long term over-stress effect of these rotators. This could be quite expensive, especially if you have a Rolex or other expensive watch brands.
Thus, it is recommended not to use this kind of “watch winder” for your expensive watches. After all, you have spent 1000's of dollars for a quality timepiece, why risk harming your watch by saving a small amount of money? Nowadays, a quality watch winder can be found that is reasonably priced without breaking the bank. Invest in a high quality watch winder will not only save you from costly repair of your watch, but will also help keep your watch in top conditions in the long term.
One of the most important features a watch winder should have is what the industry called “Rest and Turn” function. What is Rest-and-Turn function? Well, first you have to understand an automatic watch is “powered” by a micro battery inside the watch. This micro battery is in turn recharged by the energy converted from the kinetic movement of your wrist. When you are engage in normal daily activity such as walking and swinging your arm, the kinetic movement result from this movement will then be converted to micro electrical energy, and stored in the micro battery to power the watch. If you do not wear the watch, the watch will eventually use up all the stored electrical energy. You then have to wind it up again, either manually, or by means of a watch winder.
To mimic the periodic movement of the arm, a watch winder's “Turn and Rest” program will rotate the watch in the correct direction, and automatically stop the rotation and “rest” for a period of time. During this “resting period”, any stress build up on the main spring will be eased. Then after a period of time, the program will start up the rotation again. This turn and rest cycle will then repeat and providing sufficient power to wind up the watch, so that your watch can be wound up all the times, without the risk of over stressing your watch.
Above is only one of the many features one has to consider when selecting a watch winder. Other considerations include the appearance, the craftsmanship, reliability, and of course, the cost of the watch winders.
In the early days, there are only a handful of watch winders brands available on the market. Most of them are very expensive with price easily starting from the low 1,000's and up. Nowadays, one could find a watch winder ranging in price from below 0 to a few thousand dollars. A word of caution is never to select a watch winder based on its price alone. Perform a detail research on the functionality and features come with the watchwinder, the warranty, the reliability, customer service provided by the dealers, before finalize your purchase decision in buying a watch winder.
Remember, not all watch winders are created or designed equal.
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