I am certain this has been discussed before I became a member of this forum, and yes, I did do an all forums search, and I even read the linked gear patrol article on the subject. I hope my question is specific enough that it won't be considered laziness on my part to ask. Here are the givens..... I have rapidly acquired over 20 watches, mostly vintage, and I get to wear a watch a couple of times a week Some watches will make it onto my wrist once every 3 months, some not at all I am aware of the service history of about 1/3 of the watches I own I will probably be lax about providing regular service for any of these watches I currently do not own a watch winder I have a credit from an online retailer for a $300 Tissot I decided to return too late to get a refund Therefore I can pick up a WOLF Cub single winder virtually for free Would it make sense to get the single winder and each day put one of my watches on it for a day and in that fashion cycle through my collection every 20/30 days? Or, as I some have expressed here, does a winder actually do more harm than good? Thanks.
I have an Orbita single watch winder that I used to use to keep a complicated watch on to save me having to re set the time, day, date month, moonphase etc. I have not used it at all for about 3 years because actually winding and re setting a watch takes little effort while it seems logical to me that keeping it running all the time will shorten the service intervals. So unless you have a super complicated watch that you use sporadically in rotation, I wouldn't bother. Look for another watch to put your credit towards
That's way too much work for the little, if any, advantage of using a watch winder. Just use the watches in rotation as they come around, no need to 'exercise' them while they sit idle. And if they are vintage watches how many of them are automatics? Putting a manual watch on a winder does nothing.
The only advantage I see would be if you're planning to wear a particular watch again in a few days. Then putting it on the winder would save you the trouble of winding and setting the time/date.
I used to be in the no winder camp, but I got a Wolf Heritage thrown in with the purchase of two Rolexes. My first thought was "This will be great for my wife as this is her first automatic". I wasn't happy with the lack of TPD adjustment so I bought her a Wolf 4.1 Modular. The Heritage sat around unused for a while. I like to wear a TAG diver as a weekend beater and discovered that if I keep in on the winder during the week, then my workday watch on it during the weekend, I never have to hack either. This works well because I wear my weekday watch for maybe a month before rotation. So from that standpoint, a winder has been good.
Seems to me that a tilting table would give a more natural movement for a self winder. A cam surface under a rotating table or a linkage to simply raise and lower each corner in turn. I think keeping a watch wound and running should contribute to day to day accuracy, but if the watch already gains or loses more than a second or two per day you'll have to reset it sooner or later anyway. My best running watches may gain or lose only a few seconds per day but I've found I can get them back into time without resetting by using positional error. One ( my Midland 25 jewel self winder) loses around four seconds during the day but when left dial up on a shelf over night regains those seconds. Another (a cheap Indian refurb that is unnaturally accurate) , gains around one second every five days. Leaving it crown up, the band wrapped around a vitamin bottle, it will go back to dead on in about three hours. Couldn't do that if these were on a winder.