Oyster bracelet stretch

Applying constant stress for a long period of time could certainly exacerbate the stretch. In general, it's not hard to modify the pillows or fabricate a custom one (e.g. wrap some foam in duct-tape) to use in the winder.

Depending on how often you plan to wear the watch, you might also ask yourself if the wear-and-tear on the movement is worth using the winder. You may have to adjust the time to account for small errors anyway, and the watch has a quickset date. I used to use winders, but over time I found that they really only made sense for a very narrow range of circumstances.

First of all, congrats on the new (to you) watch. I love the 5 digit Explorers II's, especially for small-medium sized wrists.
The case + bracelet combo is really comfortable. I think you'll enjoy it.


^ this.
For the reasons that Dan mentioned about putting additional wear and tear on the movement....and because I have small-medium wrists and I feel like most inserts for watch winders and watch boxes are sized for much larger wrists which would result in me having to exert way more pressure on the clasp to get it to close over the pillow/insert. So for this reason I ordered some cheap velvet/velour watch pillows from Amazon that are sewn in such a way that you can remove the polyfill from them so that you get the perfect diameter for your watch(es). Not too tight that you feel like you're stretching the bracelet but not too loose where the watch is falling off the pillow and potentially banging around the winder like a load of laundry.