I have a question about the motion required to keep the "automatic" running and how many days between winding should the watch keep running. I have the M3 176.002 which my Dad bought new. I recently sent it to Omega and had it repaired. Since the watch band is too large for my wrist, I thought I would put it on a watch winder to see if it would keep accurate time. After about 4 days it dies. The guy at Omega claims it has to be on the wrist to keep the watch ticking and that a watch winder doesn't have the same motion. I thought a watch winder was supposed to keep the watch going (I bought the Wolf 2.7). Should the winder keep the automatic running for more than 4 days? I have tried settings up to 1000 CC, CW and Bi-directional. I fully wind the watch before putting it on the winder. I asked my Dad if he remembered how often he had to wind the watch and he didn't remember winding it very often at all, as the motion is supposed to keep it ticking. It seems to me that the watch is just using the power from me winding it, but the automatic part is not keeping the watch from winding down. Can anyone shed some light on this for me?
If it was serviced, it should stay running. A winder is designed to keep a watch running at roughly it's current state of wind. It won't necessarily wind the spring any more unless you have the tpd set higher than needed. Sounds like the self winding portion of the movement is not working properly, which should have been addressed during the service.
To test the manual movement, fully wind the watch with the crown ca 40 times and leave it running, if movement stops in less than 40 hours then you have a problem. Powers reserve for caliber 1040 is ca 45 hours. To check if automatic is working , wear your watch for the whole day without winding it by hand, the oscillating weight should wind the movement and by the time you go to bed movement should be fully wound, take the watch of your wrist and let it run , it should still be running when you wake up the day after, if not then you have a problem with the automatic device. Cheers Stefan
This may sound stupid but when i first got a wolf winder i put the watch on it wrong and it wouldn't stay wound either. I assumed the holder worked like a wrist, which with hindsight is obviously wrong. - just checking you have the dial of the watch facing out?
Here are a couple of winder setting databases that might be of use. http://orbita.com/database-search/ http://www.designhuette.com/uhrenbeweger/gb/Watchwinder-configuration:_:83.html
Thanks everyone for the help. I did have the watch on the winder correctly and Orbita recommended 650-950 uni = unidirectional (direction not specified). I will try what Stefan posted about wearing it not winding it first, and the winding and letting it run...I will post the results in a few days. I did get a new band and have been wearing it for the last 24 hrs...this watch is big and heavy!
Then stated power reserve for this movement is 40 hours per Omega specs. It's not uncommon for watches to run a little longer than the stated reserve if it's in good shape. So as was detailed above, fully wind it manually, let it sit dial up (chronograph off) and see how long it runs. This test will identify if there is a problem with the base movement, such as not being clean enough, barrel lubrication fault, etc. Then you should wind it and wear it for a few days, say 3 days in a row, and at the end of the 3rd day, take it off and store it dial up again and see how long it takes to stop. It should run just as long as it did on the manual wind if the automatic winding system is working properly. The most I would like to see in terms of a difference between the running times is maybe 2 hours, so if it ran 40 after manual winding, it should run at least 38 after wearing it for a while. If it does not run within a couple of hours of the manual wind time after being worn, then take it back to whoever did the service and have them look at it again. Note that watch winders (in particular consumer watch winders) can sometimes not be as efficient winding some watches as it is on your wrist. Even the style of winder that we watchmakers use to perform testing can sometimes give us false results depending on the watch in questions, and the speed of the winder (1 rpm v. 4 rpm). Hope this helps. Cheers, Al
An update. I did the test of winding and letting it sit, it ran for 44.5 hours Now, I'm wearing it and will see if it passes the second test...maybe it's running fine and just doesn't work with the watch winder. Thanks again for all the help and I'll post the next results in about 5 days.
So now you know you have a fault, and you know where the fault is - in the automatic winding. So you can return it to whoever serviced it and give them this information, and they should take it from there. Cheers, Al