Can watch winders damage your watch by over winding them and magnetic interference from the motors in the watch Winder? My mother bought a tag watch and a watch Winder it's only a month old but has already lost 15 minutes in a month whilst in the watch Winder the watch still works at the end of the month. Yes I know she should have bought an Omega but this still shouldn't happen.
It's possible that the mainspring was not fully powered before being put in the winder. One should manually wind about 20-30 turns before wearing an automatic watch to fully power the mainspring. Normal wrist motion merely keeps the mainspring powered while the watch is worn. If it is just put on without first fully powering the mainspring, the power reserve will be much less than it should be, and will likely eventually run out of "steam" if then put on a winder.
Generally TAG Heuer automatics aren't chronometers, -30s isn't great but its not totally unexpected for an unadjusted ETA movement ladies watch. I don't know what their "acceptable range" is but I'm guessing its not going to be particularly tight.
I will tell her to wind it before placing it on the watch winder and also look into the acceptable range for TAG watches. I'm not a fan of winders myself think its not needed unless you have a perpetual calendar. thanks for the help
My suggestion is that there is a watch problem, not a watch winder problem. Is the Tag new? If so, take it back. Is the Tag a calendar model? If not, could it be the watch is out more than 15 minutes. It could be days out! Some modern automatics have a winding system in which the rotor winds in ONLY one direction. If your winder isn't the type that auto-reverses, and if it happens to be turning in a direction incompatible with the winding system in the watch, the watch won't run at all! I believe that watch winders are best suited to, say, mechanical watches with a perpetual calendar which might be a pain to have to be re-setting frequently. Otherwise, the winder won't do the watch any harm. But over years, the watch can encounter wear in spots such as barrel arbor bearings, mainspring barrel bearings, centre wheel arbor bearings- in other words, wear in areas that often are not fitted with jewels. I wouldn't use one, myself. Although I do keep a simple one in my shop for testing automatics, and rating chronometers.
The watch still works after being on the winder for weeks so I think it needs to go back to the shop. I live in the highlands of scotland some 350 miles away from her but am traveling back in a week or so. I'll wind the watch and check it over 24h if its loses 30s then its time to take it back to the shop as its only 3 months old. I think its a TAG calibre 5 ETA movement I can't find the acceptable range for it but it shouldn't be 30s.
My four watch winder is set to wind clockwise for 6 minutes, then pause for 20 minutes, then wind counterclockwise for 6 minutes. This way it just keeps the watches running without fully winding them.