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Best habits for manual watch winding?

AustinCambridge
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Professionally, I work in the electric vehicle space. Lately, there has been much discussion about the best practices for charging your EV to preserve battery life in the long run. For example, avoid charging above 90% or drain below 10% if possible. While that was also the case for the lithium-ion batteries in our phones and notebook PCs, of course the habit has always been to plug in overnight and charge to 100%.

It started me thinking about my manual wind watches. Does the collective wisdom of Omega Forums have a view on best practices for winding our manual watches? How to best preserve and reduce wear and tear?
 
Archer
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No real best practices, other than wind the watch every day, around the same time of day for best timekeeping. If the watch has a very long power reserve (3 days or 8 days or something) then obviously winding every day is not required.
 
amfalconer
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Unless you have a power reserve indicator then surely there's no way of knowing how much you're winding it.

With my speedy I wind it daily, until it stops, this way I can guarantee consistent performance

Most of these watches go for decades without servicing so wear and tear is negligible.
 
AustinCambridge
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Thanks, all. I guess my question was whether there is any difference winding to full and running down versus a few turns 2-3 times per day. Thinking in context of a 42 hour power reserve movement.
 
amfalconer
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Unlikely, whilst batteries generally perform equally across the power range (you can tell I'm no expert) a mainspring generally has a torque curve in that at its near depleted state, you'll find timekeeping suffers.

To clarify on my earlier comment, in the real world, many people only have watches serviced when they have an issue, a few less turns a day over years is unlikely to make a difference.
 
Canuck
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AustinCambridge AustinCambridge
Thanks, all. I guess my question was whether there is any difference winding to full and running down versus a few turns 2-3 times per day. Thinking in context of a 42 hour power reserve movement.

Best way to avoid wear is to not wind it. That way, it will give you the correct time, twice a day, and the watch will last your heirs into the 22nd century. To wind it a little bit, 2 or 3 times per day means your watch will stop on you, unpredictably! And when you do find it stopped, you’ll be looking somewhere else for the correct time! Wind it fully! Somebody said “it will run for decades without servicing!” Don’t you believe that bit of foolish advice!
 
Canuck
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amfalconer amfalconer
Unless you have a power reserve indicator then surely there's no way of knowing how much you're winding it.

With my speedy I wind it daily, until it stops, this way I can guarantee consistent performance

Most of these watches go for decades without servicing so wear and tear is negligible.

How else might someone interpret such a statement?
 
amfalconer
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I thought I'd clarified above?

I'm not getting drawn into an argument about this, OP it's foolish to go decades without servicing your watch, as you seem concerned about wear and tear I can't imagine for a second you'd ignore the maintenance intervals.
 
AustinCambridge
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I thought the question was simple--if winding fully put any extra strain on the mainspring, or it it was happier operating in a middle range. All my prior watches were automatic, and lately my purchases have been manual, so I started to think about the question.

Agree all will need service, just aiming to minimize wear, particularly on some vintage watches where parts are harder to come by.

If winding fully was how it was designed, so go for it, then by all means that's the answer I was looking for. 😀
 
Archer
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AustinCambridge AustinCambridge
If winding fully was how it was designed, so go for it, then by all means that's the answer I was looking for. 😀

Yes, that's how it was designed.
 
M'Bob
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Never wind while drunk or freebasing cocaine.

Don’t attempt winding whilst riding your motorcycle.

Do not ever attempt winding if the watch is worn and your wrist is submerged in a vat of hot chicken soup with vegetables.

If you’re extremely frustrated, and feel that you would get some relief by placing your watch on a firm surface, and hitting it with a Wile E. Coyote wooden mallet, please fully wind the watch, and have the seals check by a competent watchmaker. This will go a long way towards protecting the movement from damage.
 
Pazzo
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I wind the watch I'm wearing to full wind every twelve hours. Is that a bad habit?
 
Archer
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Pazzo Pazzo
I wind the watch I'm wearing to full wind every twelve hours.

Why?
 
Pazzo
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Archer Archer
Why?

@Archer - Not sure what you mean with your question, tbh.

Is it, why do I wind the watch every twelve hours or is it why it might be a bad habit?
Maybe I should have asked, is it okay to wind a watch to the full wind every twelve hours?
 
Archer
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Pazzo Pazzo
@Archer - Not sure what you mean with your question, tbh.

Is it, why do I wind the watch every twelve hours or is it why it might be a bad habit?
Maybe I should have asked, is it okay to wind a watch to the full wind every twelve hours?

It’s the part of your post I quoted.
 
Canuck
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Pazzo Pazzo
@Archer - Not sure what you mean with your question, tbh.

Is it, why do I wind the watch every twelve hours or is it why it might be a bad habit?
Maybe I should have asked, is it okay to wind a watch to the full wind every twelve hours?
Pazzo Pazzo
@Archer - Not sure what you mean with your question, tbh.

Is it, why do I wind the watch every twelve hours or is it why it might be a bad habit?
Maybe I should have asked, is it okay to wind a watch to the full wind every twelve hours?

🍿
 
Pazzo
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Archer Archer
It’s the part of your post I quoted.

@Archer - So you would rather give a full wind once every day. And that's what I shall be doing from now on.


@Canuck - I can't stand you eating all that popcorn... 😁
 
Canuck
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Pazzo Pazzo
@Archer - So you would rather give a full wind once every day. And that's what I shall be doing from now on.


@Canuck - I can't stand you eating all that popcorn... 😁

Clears the fog!
 
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