Interesting facts about watchwinders!

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.