I inherited my dad's Seamaster Automatic. I've not owned a vintage automatic watch before and I've gotten conflicting advice on whether or not I need to wind it manually or does wearing it daily keep it going? My jeweler told me to wind it 40-50 turns every day, but I read online that if I wear it daily then I don't need to wind it manually.

Do I need a new jeweler or should I stop believing everything I read on the internet?

Thanks.

 

It's good to give it a wind before wearing if it is completely run down. After that, in principle wearing it daily should keep it wound. However, if the watch hasn't been serviced in a long time (or if the movement isn't in good condition), the auto-winding mechanism may not be very efficient, so you may need to wind it occasionally. Of course, if it hasn't been serviced, then you really should have it done before wearing it daily, since the lubrication will not be working effectively, and the movement will experience damage from wear.

 

If it has stopped, wind it fully before putting it on. If you wear it every day after you shouldn’t have to wind it unless you are very inactive.

 

Typical power reserve for automatics is around 40 hours so wearing it daily will keep it going unless you have a very sedentary lifestyle.

 

Welcome and condolences. I’m very sorry you had to get your Seamaster the hard way, but wearing it every day will be a great tribute and memory of your father.

As others have said, give it a full initial windup. If I may add one piece of advice- always keep a fairly loose pinch on the crown when winding. That way your fingers will slip on the crown when you reach the fully-wound stopping point. You’ll know it when you get there. In other words, don’t Visegrip it and force it past this point.

And we love watch photos. Show us a picture, please!

 

And we like photos

 

The crown will not reach a stopping point, it's an automatic.

 

Ah, you’re right! Well, the OP can table that advice until he gets a Speedmaster!

 

Thanks, all. I should have mentioned that I had the watch refurbished by Omega in Switzerland. Here's a couple of photos, including the parts that were returned from Omega. My mom and dad gave each other Omega watches when they were married in 1952. Dad was a career naval officer and he wore this watch during several combat tours in Vietnam. It's not a fancy watch but, needless to say, it is now one of my most cherished possessions (as an aside, my wife and I continued the tradition and we each have Omega watches that we gave each other around 30 years ago).

 

Maybe more photos than you wished for, but here's one of dad wearing the watch (at least I'm 99% certain it's the Seamaster). That's me he's holding circa late 1956.

 

Interesting because when I did wind it I thought I felt a stopping point.

 

I love everything about this photo!


(Sorry to slightly derail) This is why I love photography in the era of film- this is the shot before the “shot”, your dad trying to wrangle your brother, you missing your shoe- and clearly, despite being a naval officer- this moment is obviously starting to stress him out (you can see it on his face). In the digital age, this shot would have been deleted in favor of the smiling moment looking at the camera...but this very timeless, human moment- is captured for eternity.

 

Ha! You nailed it! My dad was a bit of a grump. Our family eventually grew to 3 boys and our cross country moving trips are the source of many amusing (to us, not him!) stories. Our favorite was the time he ran the station wagon into a pile of watermelons at a roadside market because we were misbehaving in the back seat and he had turned around to tell us to stop! We always moved during the summer and usually took the southern route and dad didn't believe in air conditioning....it's no wonder we were restless in the back seat!

 

I'm a photographer and I shoot film, and I'm not sure if digital is the one to blame here.

Well, partly, but not entirely. Digital made photography much cheaper and accessible to an enormous quantity of people who just don't know what a good shot looks like. I'd do the same good shot with a film or a digital camera in any given situation.

Just my two cents. I appreciate your love for film (a love that I share), but I think people are the main reason why most pictures suck today, not cameras.

 

Not blaming the medium (I too am a professional photographer who shoots both), simply that during the era of film, a novice shot the whole roll and if you got a good shot or two, you printed those- but these secondary shots were still there on the roll. With digital, it’s common to chimp after each shot and just delete the ones that aren’t “perfect”. So “imperfect” moments like the above photo tend to be lost in favor of the “good one”. My point being, the perfect, happy Instagram moment is what most people see- this photo tells me so much more.

 

Absolutely correct!

 

what a cool picture indeed. Enjoy the watch!

 

What a great story and thread. Wear the watch in good heatlh.