I bought my first vintage Omega seamaster and had serviced it three weeks ago. It's an automatic watch with manual winding capability. At first, I tried winding it clockwise but felt a resistance, so I thought it shouldn't be wound that way. So I winded it counterclockwise, thinking that turning it CCW is the right way to winding the watch.. Well, today, I wanted to start up my watch by manually winding it. So I winded my watch CCW. I did this for about 30 seconds and realized it's not winding! I did a quick google search and it turns out that the correct direction is clockwise, and that turning it CCW will not wind the watch. Now everything works fine but I'm wondering if I did any damage to the watch by trying to wind the crown CCW?
Nooooooooo. But seriously, most watches have a saw-tooth winding pinion or clutch and they have a little click spring that holds tension. So, winding backwards is fine, all it's doing is "ramping" the teeth over each other and not winding the watch. Then when you wind the correct direction, they "catch" instead of ramp and wind as it should. Think of it as a bunch of little right-angle triangles, one direction they slide over each other, the other direction they interlock. You can actually wind you watch by going back and forth if you want. 180* forward, 180* back... Slide-catch-slide-catch-slide-catch. Etc. I guess after years of doing that it could cause wear. But not the damage you're thinking.
No, most watches (manual or automatic) will just freewheel in the counter-clockwise direction. You'll need to wind it in the direction that you feel the resistance, but if it's too stiff to wind then I would take it in for service rather than try to force it.
Perhaps it’s best to just stare at it and not touch it at all. That should transfer enough energy to get it started with much less resistance.
If it was just serviced, the manual winding should not be particularly stiff. Of course, if you are not familiar with mechanical watches, perhaps it's just the normal amount of resistance. It's hard to judge over the internet.
But sometimes a new crown with its new gasket is a little grabby and doesn't want to turn, the little contrarian!