Forty years ago I acquired my first real timepiece. An Omega Flightmaster. One day, out of sheer laziness, I set the time by winding the stem counter clockwise. It stopped running. The watchmaker who repaired it admonished me to never move the hands backwards and I never did again. Last week I was watching a video comparison of a Seamaster and a Tudor. Imagine my shock and horror to see the guy in the video moving the hands vigorously in either direction. So which is it? Is it watch dependant? Thanks!

 

I alway wound forward, but our resident expert, Al, said it won't hurt to do it counterclockwise. Not sure if this pertains to all watches, though.

 

Only set the time counter clockwise when holding the watch upside down

 

Totally fine to wind backwards, many watches have a quick set date function that involved winding the time back from 12 to 9 and back again.

 

And some movements require that you only change the date when the hour hand is between 4 and 8.

It pays to find out exactly how your watch must be wound and set. There's heaps of old manuals on the internet.