Mechanical watches have a distinct appeal that extends far beyond simply keeping an accurate measure of time. It’s all about the mechanisms, and the artisan craftsmanship that goes in to making these watches tick. Choosing a self-winding watch requires a dedication to manual winding, and this can be a challenging aspect of your routine to uphold daily.
Watch winders can be a big help here, making the process a lot smoother and easier – even allowing you to take your mind off the constant burden of winding your watch to keep it moving. Understanding how watch winders work depends firstly on a working knowledge of mechanical watches and how they operate.
Mechanical watches rely on an escapement – a type of mechanism that shifts energy from a coiled spring to the time element. Its neat mechanism ensures standard intervals between each second, minute and hour that allows the best watches to provide precision accuracy. Aside from the visuals, and the external construction of executive caliber watches, it is the quality and ingenuity of these precise mechanisms that make watches such an interesting instrument to own.
Some watches use the energy of your body in motion to create the energy source for the mechanism, in place of manual winding. These are known as self-winding watches. Thanks to the balancing mechanisms of modern devices these can self-wind as you go about your daily business. An internal rotor transfers energy from your motion through the day to power the winding mechanism, removing the obligation to wind at consistent short-term intervals.
The problem with self-winding watches arises on days where you choose not to wear your watch. Because the watch will not get the energy it needs to run over the day, you are required to manually wind the watch when required, to ensure it remains accurate to the time and in good mechanical condition. Without this process, the watch will cease to keep time, and its performance will loosen off against the precise benchmarks to which it was made.
This is a sad state of affairs for any watch, and indeed any watch owner. The easy solution to the problem is an automatic watch winder, and people often buywatchwinders at the same time as they buy their watch. Resembling a display case or an ornamental box, these devices ensure watches can be safely stored and wound automatically when you are not wearing them. By winding your watch for you, this saves time in the daily routine, while ensuring a consistency about winding your watch as required.
With reasonable use, there should be no need to wind a self-winding watch every day. Other watches may require this level of attention, and if you don’t wear your self-winding watch every day, it will require your intervention. But when a watch winder is introduced into the equation, it becomes an easier problem to address. As part of keeping watches well maintained and in the best running order, investing in a watch winder can save you time and effort, as well as providing a suitably secure compartment for storing your beloved timepiece.