The watch and watchwinder industry is quite conservative which makes technical innovations very interesting, as they are quite rare. When we visited Baselworld at the beginning of this year we noticed that some watchwinder brands innovate with a new feature: watchwinders controlled by smartphones. A simple app allows the user to set all important settings of the watchwinder without touching the watchwinder itself. 

The nice thing is that these apps do have all watch winding specs for many automatic watches available instantly. This will make it far more easy for the user to set the exact settings his/her automatic watch(es) need. Spin-R from Hong Kong will introduce a new watchwinder with app control. It works with bluetooth connectivity. Spin-R produces modern watchwinders with attractive designs in several colors. The interesting prices do make this Asia brand very attractive for the starting watch collector. 

We hope this technical development will result in more interesting functions for watchwinders. We know that many brands work hard on these innovations and we are sure 2015 will be a year full of new gadgets, functions and innovations.

The question is; do you really need a app-controlled watchwinder? In our opinion it's a great feature but not absolutely necessary. It's handy and trendy and will attract a younger consumer which is used using his/her smartphone in daily life! The new Spin-R watchwinders are launched already at Baselworld and the Hong Kong watch fair (September 2014) and will be available soon!

Many watch enthusiasts talk about watchwinders as it's an important watch accessory for automatic watches. Some are negative about watchwinders, but most are very positive. The first group exists mostly of those who don't have a watchwinder, because those who have a watchwinder experienced how great this accessory is. 

In this article we will discuss multiple facts about watchwinders to give you a bit more background information. 

A watchwinder is handy for those who have one or more automatic watches

When you have more than one automatic watch you definitely know that it's absurdly to wind-up your watches every day to keep them running. Of course it's important that automatic watches keep in motion to lubricate the oil inside and keep the parts smoothly working together, but it's wasting time to do it all manually and you can wear only one! Therefore a watchwinder is a perfect solution. It keeps all automatic watches in motion in a safe environment, and you can pick the watch you want to wear without the obligation to wind the watch by hand and adjust the time, date and/or other functions. 

A watchwinder is good for the durability of your automatic watches

As we all know it's not good to drive a car once per year. A car needs to be in motion to keep all functions working. We can compare a car with an automatic watch. An automatic watch also needs motion to keep the oil inside the movement fluently distributed over the mechanical parts. What people often think is that a watchwinder rotates continuously, but that's not true. Almost all watchwinders do have programs which alternate rotation with a resting phase. The higher the number of turns per day (TPD) to smaller the resting phase. 

Modern automatic watches do have a "stress" protection inside the watch, to avoid too much stress to the movement. Thereby all modern watchwinders have a system that also avoid stress, by offering different programs (rotation vs resting phase). 

You can also think in terms of durability when you wind-up the watch by hand; you need to open the crown (to wind-up the movement) and adjust the time, date and/or other functions. This also results in wear, especially as the crown is one of the weakest parts of a watch. When you use a watchwinder you (almost) never have to pull out the crown and adjust the settings. 

A good watchwinder doesn't have to cost a lot of money! 

Please don't consider a Chinese watchwinder (= Chinese motor inside), as it's a waste of money. It will probably function less than one year, or starts making a lot of noice. A good watchwinder with for example Japanese Maibuchi motors will do the job. They are available from 99 euros (130 USD). Of course, when you want a special watchwinder with Swiss technique and a great design you need to have a bigger budget. Also when you have multiple watches to wind you need a bigger watchwinder, which results in a higher price.

Watchwinders are available in all kind of price ranges, materials, designs and colors. Just choose the watchwinder that fits your automatic watch collection and budget.

As writers for blog about watchwinders we are always interested in news about watchwinders. Not only we are interested in brands with news about their latest models and newest technology, we are also keen on shops who sell watchwinders. It's nice to see that more and more online stores do focus on selling watchwinders as perfect accessory for automatic watches. There was a time that watchwinders were only sold by jewelers but the last 5 years more and more watchwinder brands do sell online, by official dealers and/or their own online store. 

We think this is a great development, as it gives the consumer more options to check out models and compare different models and brands with each other. 

Watchwinders.com, a new online store for watchwinders.

Recently we saw a new online store which did attract us because of the trendy webdesign and interesting brands. We did get in touch with the owner and he informed us that after launching Watchwinders.nl in 2010 for the Dutch and Belgian market he noticed a growing interest from consumers abroad. Then he developed a new business plan to sell worldwide with a more global online store. At the end of 2013 they did purchase the URL watchwinders.com from a US company and started developing a new online store on it. 

Now Watchwinders.com is live for 2 weeks. With brands as Swiss Kubik, Rapport, Underwood London, Scatola del Temo, Bernard Favre, Elma, Eilux and less known Benson, Paul Design and Heisse & Söhne they have a great collection of low, middle and high-end range watchwinders. 

To sell watchwinders internationally you need to offer several payment and shipping options. Thereby delivery directly from stock is important to supply the customer quickly. In our opinion Watchwinders.com did a great job by considering what a consumer nowadays expect when he/she buys online. All options are available and there is a great mix of brands. 

Did you see another interesting shop with nice watchwinders? Please e-mail us! 

When your interested in automatic watches there is a moment that you have several automatic watches and want to wear more than one regularly. The problem is that when you want to change the watch for another, this watch doesn't run as there is no energy left in the watch.

What you can do is wind the watch by turning the crown or gently shake the watch whereafter you adjust the time, date and other functions. As we all know this could be a time consuming job. To make our lives more simple there are watchwinders! A watchwinder does wind your automatic watches so you can wear the preffered watch immediately without adjusting the time and date as a result there was no energy left in the movement. 

How to buy your first watchwinder

When you have a small watch collection of 2-3 pieces we advise you to buy a watchwinder suitable for 3 or 4 watches. If you have a free turntable there is always a good excuse to buy another automatic watch:) 

The price of the watchwinder depends from the watches you have. There is no point in buying a cheap watchwinder when you have several high end watches from brands as Breitling, Rolex or IWC. Then don't be a "scrooge" and buy a beautiful watchwinder from a well known brand that fits to your watch collection. 

When you're just starting your watch collection, then we advise you to buy a relatively cheap watchwinder (up to 300 USD) to gain experience with watchwinders in general. Then you can discover exactly what you need and save money to extend your watch collection. Don't buy a watchwinder with Chinese motors, as they break down quite quick. Buy a watchwinder with Japanese Maibuchi motors, or when you have more money to spend a watchwinder with Swiss motor. 

We advise to buy a watchwinder with the adjustable TPD (turns per day) function as it's better to have options for different automatic watches. Then you can select the exact TPD per watch. Normally, all watchwinders do rotate left, right and alternate so the preffered direction of rotation of your watch is covered. 

Enjoy your watch collection, and make sure you have a good watchwinder to keep them turning:) 

In march this year we wrote an article about a new player on the watchwinder market. We gave a sneak preview about the promising brand Chronovision from Germany. At Baselworld we saw the samples of their first model: "One". With interesting functions as speed winding, sleeping mode and USB connection this watchwinder does interest us very much. Thereby the functions of the One watchwinder can be set by a smartphone which makes it a gadget too.

In the field of single watchwinders Swiss Kubik is famous and does offer high quality watchwinders. Though, Swiss Kubik watchwinders are not cheap which makes it interesting for other brands to present a single watchwinder in the price gap below 500 euro. Of course Swiss Kubik has the new ABS models which have a lower price, but in fact these watchwinders are not offering that functions which Chronovision does.

Chronovision estimates to start with 40-50 different variations (in color and materials) and the sales will start at november. Exact prices are not known yet, but we expect them in a price range of 400-550 euro.