Hi, I recently had the good fortune of buying the new Omega Speedmaster Apollo 8 but have some concerns over the manual winding process. I let the watch stop and after 10 or so turns of the crown (using thumb and forefinger) I encounter stiff resistance. I usually continue and stop at around 20 turns because I am scared of causing damage. Having looked at various forums it seems it usually takes around 40 turns to fully wind the 1861 movement. I dont think i could get anywhere near that without applying a huge amount of force. My fear is that i have may have already damaged the mainspring/movement. This is my first manual winding machine so any tips or advice would be much appreciated.
Subscribing to this thread... I have owned two FOIS speedmasters (with the same 1861 movement). The first one (which I sold in 2017) took about 30 turns to fully wind, and my second (which I currently own) takes about 24. I'm not sure if I've become more efficient in winding, or if the movements can slightly differ? I'm interested in others responses as well.
It depends on how much power is still in the spring. Mine needs 20 or so if I wind it every day, but more if I leave it longer. You could ask the OB to check it... And there are other threads discussing this in more detail that you can search for.
All depends on how many revolutions does the crown do during one stroke? If I wind every morning it takes about 20 strokes to fully wind. If it stops, it requires circa 40 strokes.
Can you elaborate on huge amount of force? It's a pretty small crown that can be relatively slippery at times, so I'm having a hard time imagining that it could be so much force to wind and not just slip in your fingers... My recently serviced 145.022 has a fresh mainspring and it does probably take 30+ turns to fully wind from empty, and my fingers can be slightly on the raw side after fully winding... I say that to illustrate the amount of force I have to apply in order to get enough grip on the crown and turn it until it stops. It's not effortless by any means, but it shouldn't be so hard that you can't keep winding until the crown stops.
I think it depends on the individual watch. The Speedmaster I'm wearing this week is 13 turns every morning. If it's wound down completely, it's 42. This is true every time.
It will loosen. Give it a few weeks Wind it to you can’t, you will get some turn back for the first few weeks at about 10-20 but keep going until you feel that can’t wind anymore.
Thank you for all your input. Hopefully the crown will loosen with time. Still haven’t plucked up the courage to keep winding until it stops. I just keep going until I feel very firm resistance (with significant rollback pressure). I think my fears of having damaged the movement were exagerrated as the watch is keeping good time (+2secs/day). Keeping my fingers crossed!