Power reserve?

Kitch · Sep 15, 2022

Hi guys
I bought a Speedmaster racing 9900 about a month ago brand new from AD and wound it fully (or what I thought was fully) which was about 90 turns and the power reserve lasted over the stated 60 hours but half way through winding it made a noise sort of like a spring releasing!
Anyway, since then I’ve read automatic watches only need 40 winds which only now lasts about 36 hours.
So my question is am I under winding it now at 40 turns or have I damaged something when I first wound it 90 turns and when it made a funny noise?
Thanks for any replies.

Crunchie · Sep 15, 2022

If you’re wearing it every day and you’re reasonably active, you shouldn’t need to wind it at all.
Surely if it made a strange noise while you were winding it, that was a sign to stop?
If you’ve been unlucky enough to break something, it should be repaired under warranty, but I wouldn’t tell them about the winding if I were you…

Kitch · Sep 15, 2022

I don’t wear it everyday and there’s no information as to how many winds you should wind it anywhere, the automatic will wind forever as there’s no stop I believe?

Crunchie · Sep 15, 2022

K Kitch
I don’t wear it everyday and there’s no information as to how many winds you should wind it anywhere, the automatic will wind forever as there’s no stop I believe?

No idea. General rule is to wind until you feel resistance.

A dozen winds or a gentle shake to get the watch going has always done the job for me, and I’ve never had a watch stop while I’ve been wearing it.

I’d try it this way on the days you wear it and see what happens. If you swap between different watches, power reserve is fairly irrelevant - just set the watch when you put it on.

Obviously you still want to try to identify and address any problems within the warranty period, but a few hours either way wouldn’t worry me.

noless · Sep 15, 2022

sounds like you wound it to full and then the bridle in the barrel slipped against the barrel wall (as they are supposed to do so that they don't break themselves while autowinding)

As different watches have different sizes of barrel and mainspring and modern watches can now have more than one barrel even, I dont think theres a one size fits all number for how many turns till full.

I think its unlikely that you actually broke anything, but assuming its not a huge journey to visit either your AD or a local omega service center since you are under warranty asking them if you are still worried is probably a good idea even if just for peace of mind

Kitch · Sep 15, 2022

Thank you for all the replies, I have read that you can’t break them as they have a fail safe in place but it’s odd how I don’t get the full power reserve, I’ll monitor it and see how it goes, the 5 year warranty gives me plenty of time I guess!

noless · Sep 15, 2022

I would suspect that the warning that seiko gives would still be plenty applicable to an omega, being that while continuing to wind shouldn't cause any damage, theres no reason to wind excessively for no reason as that just increases wear for no reason.

Kitch · Sep 15, 2022

So I wound the watch 40 times last night and it has lasted 24 hours so I’m sure there must be something wrong, guess I’ll have to take it back!

Ocean · Sep 15, 2022

From my knowledge the modern Omega watches have some mechanics do not overwind. I am very careful with the old ones because I am also afraid do to wind to much and broke the spring but with the new one I understand that this problem do not exist.

ExpiredWatchdog · Sep 15, 2022

It's an automatic. The barrels (there are two of them) aren't attached to the mainsprings, just friction. This allows the automatic to overwind without breaking anything.

Forty turns is not enough to fully wind your watch. I can't find a authoritative answer, but 100 turns is suggested in various places.

I've experienced one movement make a decent amount of noise when the mainspring slips; it was a Shanghai 2428-2 clone and it had no braking grease between the mainspring and barrel. It only wound about halfway and then cut loose, making a loud noise. It sounded like a rewind spring breaking in a tape measure, if you've ever experienced that. It was caused by the lack of breaking grease, which adds friction and provides lubrication between the spring and barrel.

If it's really that loud, perhaps one or both barrels are under-greased. I think that's highly unlikely but you never know.

4011021 · Sep 16, 2022

K Kitch
So I wound the watch 40 times last night and it has lasted 24 hours so I’m sure there must be something wrong, guess I’ll have to take it back!

40 times probably wasn't enough to fully wind it and that's why you have 24h with 40 turns and 60 hours with 90 turns.

There's a difference between full wind and enough wind to last a day. Daily use of automatic should be enough for the watch to keep working without having to manually wind it, but probably not enough for the watch to reach full power even with additional 40 turns.

Kitch · Sep 16, 2022

ExpiredWatchdog
It's an automatic. The barrels (there are two of them) aren't attached to the mainsprings, just friction. This allows the automatic to overwind without breaking anything.

Forty turns is not enough to fully wind your watch. I can't find a authoritative answer, but 100 turns is suggested in various places.

I've experienced one movement make a decent amount of noise when the mainspring slips; it was a Shanghai 2428-2 clone and it had no braking grease between the mainspring and barrel. It only wound about halfway and then cut loose, making a loud noise. It sounded like a rewind spring breaking in a tape measure, if you've ever experienced that. It was caused by the lack of breaking grease, which adds friction and provides lubrication between the spring and barrel.

If it's really that loud, perhaps one or both barrels are under-greased. I think that's highly unlikely but you never know.

That is exactly the noise/feeling it made, like a tape measure retracting at speed!
Anyway took the watch back to the dealer and without quibble offered a repair or a replacement, obviously I chose replacement but here’s a thing I would like your views on…,,
When we took out the warranty card it looked like the date had been rubbed off and a new date entered, I asked if the watch had previously been returned or had it had the wrong date applied, he said a junior had mixed up some cards and filled them in incorrectly! Hmmm not sure about that but as we got chatting we asked where the watch would go, he said after repair it would sell as used to which I said the buyer would be lucky as it is brand new!
His reply shocked me a little, he said Omega may send it back to store to sell again as new!
I didn’t say anything but I automatically thought that was the reason the date had been tampered with!
Anyway it will be interesting to see if the new watch has an untampered warranty card, if it has been messed with I’ll assume it’s a return being resold and I’ll reject it!

Kitch · Sep 16, 2022

4011021
40 times probably wasn't enough to fully wind it and that's why you have 24h with 40 turns and 60 hours with 90 turns.

There's a difference between full wind and enough wind to last a day. Daily use of automatic should be enough for the watch to keep working without having to manually wind it, but probably not enough for the watch to reach full power even with additional 40 turns.

thanks for the reply, it’s interesting that information on winding limits is very vague isn’t it, I’ll be cautious of winding now!

Power reserve?

Kitch

Crunchie

Kitch

Crunchie

noless

Kitch

noless

Kitch

Ocean

ExpiredWatchdog

4011021

Kitch

Kitch

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