experience from newbie winding a Sapphire Sandwich Moonwatch

I just bought a Moonwatch a few weeks ago; and I started observing several times the watch would stop (typically before a 24 hour period).

My AD promptly fixed the watch within one week, which was great! But after being told the reason my new watch was not making it (no-where even close) to the 48-50 power reserve period) is because I overwound the watch, I felt like a bonehead!! So now I am just wondering if I am the only newbie to Speedys with this experience???

In the short time I've owned this watch, I had read (time and again) on various forums that you really can't cause any damage to the mainspring or other internal parts unless you use brute force (so to speak) when winding the crown. I have never used "force" with the crown. BUT, clearly, I must've managed to create this problem that required someone certified to work on these watches to open the case and make an adjustment. He said it only took him about 20 minutes to fix it - but that is from someone experienced in opening the cases and working on these watches.

I know a lot of this must sound stupid for people experienced with manual wound watches. But, it is not second nature for some folks that have only owned automatics in the past. So, fingers crossed, I will get the "feel" of this crown very soon and have confidence in never exceeding the so called "hard stop". I do wish the crown was a bit bigger for a watch that is going to have to be continually wound! Okay, enough ramble here. Any comments/advice appreciated for this newbie of a Speedy watch.

When I bought my Speedy, my AD showed me how to wind the watch and had me practice, so I'll get the hang of it. Even when I thought I felt resistance, my AD would tell me, "Keep going; you're not even close." Hahaha

As others have said, I'm pretty sure you didn't wind it all the way. But you will feel the crown stop when it's fully wound.

Maybe your AD was a Stand Up Comedian before he changed jobs.....

It is simple that you just wind until it stops. I would say that it is difficult to overwind and would probably take quite a bit of force. It is unmistakable when you hit max wind and the crown stops.


I feel like you should get a second opinion from somewhere else.

From what you've written, the only thing that I can imagine is that the mainspring was broken, and that this is what was repaired by AD.

Mainsprings can be broken by forcing the crown when the watch is fully wound, but they can also break spontaneously (rare on new watches but it does happen).

But these are just guesses and the AD should be able to provide you with a more detailed answer.

If we don't believe the ADs words, why believe the 20 minutes. The OP mentions "My AD promptly fixed the watch within one week".

Anyway, there is no point in arguing about this. If the OP really wants to know what was repaired (if anything at all), it would be pretty easy to find out.

I do find it hard to believe that the AD would tell the client the watch was repaired, when in fact nothing was done at all (and the watch was simply not being wound sufficiently). And on top of that telling the customer he was doing something wrong.

Yes, that's exactly what I was told - that I had over-wound it - even though I've never tried to "force" the crown to turn. But, in so many words, he said it was a quick fix (about 20 minutes) and did not require replacing the mainspring. Just a minor adjustment after taking the case back off.

I did practice at the AD on another Moonwatch (since mine had already been fully wound at that point) when I picked it up. I was told to "keep going" a couple of times (on the practice watch) after the crown really started feeling lots of resistance.

But now that I have my watch back home, I am going to see how long the power reserve will continue to last before winding again (a test). I want to see this new Speedy go 48-50 hours as Omega promises on a full wind. Once the power reserve runs out, I will give it a full wind; and post back here with feedback.

Thanks for the replies here.

Overwinding a mainspring was a problem. In the seventeen hundreds.

It is literally impossible to overwind a watch. Even if you tried to force the crown to keep turning you wouldn't have enough strength to break it. There is no such thing as overwinding a watch. Keep going till you feel it stop, and don't worry about it.

^^^^

but, but, but my mate said his father overwound 60 year old watch that also happened never serviced!!!