Confusion/Trouble about fully winding my Speedmaster Professional Moonwatch

JimInOz

It's a generational thing.

When my Dad was a kid, he'd watch his father winding his pocket watch as they had breakfast.
When I was a kid, I'd see my Dad winding his watch.

He knew and I knew, instinctively, that the watch was no different to a clockwork toy which millions of people knew prior to the advent of battery powered toys.

I used to wind my trains, cars, pecking bird, clockwork mouse, sparking robot etc. and I would wind the key until it stopped.
That's when I knew it was "wound up".

Same with my Grandfather. He would wind the mantel clock until the key stopped.
Alarm clocks had to be wound, sometimes with two keys and you wound until they stopped.
Travel clocks (the little folding ones) were wound in exactly the same manner.
My Mum used a kitchen timer and she would wind it around to the stop, and then turn it back to the required time.

Using spring powered articles wasn't a great mystery or rocket science, but later generations have lost this knowledge.

D Duckie

You forgot lawn mowers.
Back in the day when there were mowers with a flip over crank handle that had to be wound up until they stopped.
Then the handle had to be flipped back over into the secure position before one was able to release a small lever to allow the spring to crank the engine as it unwound.
Talk about counter productive🙁
I think they were Mayfair mowers👎
One could literally pull a simple starter rope 6-7 times for a far greater result in the same time it took to flip-wind-flip back-release with the sole objective being to just start the thing👎
I still have an Ansonia Kitchen clock which probably dates back to around the latest part of the turn of the century before the last one.