An interesting piece
@Syrte.
As you may know, the Bidynator was the world's first successful bi-directional rotor winding automatic watch and was produced by
Felsa, not "that other company".
There is a discussion going on in a watchmaker's group I'm a part of right now regarding automatic winding and it's history. There is a 400 page book by Richard Watkins called "The origins of self-winding watches 1773-1779" that describes the watchmaking efforts in this regard during that period. That's a large book to cover that short time, but there's a lot going on in that time.
In browsing through this book, it's clear that the first full rotor watch with bi-directional winding was invented by Hubert Sarton of Belgium, in 1777, with an example being presented to the French Academy in Paris for review in 1778. Here's an excerpt from the report that was written on the watch from the Academy:
"We supposed that this weight went in one direction, but it could go in the contrary direction, which would produce a precisely opposite effect, which would disturb everything. To make all these various movements profitable, the author has placed a second small wheel with a pinion and click-and-ratchet work, very similar to that which forms a unit with the weight, so that it gears with that one, and that its pinion gears with the wheel which moves that of the fusee.
Thus it is clear that by these double gears, the various movements of the weight always produce a movement in the same direction on the wheel that moves that of the fusee. It is good to note that the click-and-ratchet work are only necessary here, so that the pinions can turn independently of the wheels, and vice versa. Lastly, so that, when the watch is completely wound, it cannot be wound more, the chain guard carries a pin which goes through the plate and will engage in the notches of a plate which is under the weight, so that it is stopped by this pin, remains motionless and the chain is no longer wound.
To make an experiment with this watch one of us had it carried by his servant for the space of two thousand steps or there about, it was run down before, and the chain was wound up two turns."
I've made the relevant text bold. This design really didn't go anywhere other than the Academy, so only a small number of these were ever made. Some images from the book:
A patent was also made for a full rotor bi-directional winding watch in 1893:
These were of course pocket watches, but the claims/arguments made by various watch companies in the 20th century regarding who was first with what, ring hollow when you see that the ideas came 140 years earlier...
