Howdy, folks... Two quick questions: 1. Should I wind my Elgin B.W. Raymond to the 0 (zero) position on the wind indicator or to the "STOP" position on the wind indicator? I asked my watchmaker as well as the selling vendor and they both stated to wind it to the 0 (zero) position. 2. What is the purpose of the "STOP" position on the wind indicator?
I'm guessing, but I would imagine that keeping it wound to between the stop and wind points, avoiding the extremes of tension on the spring, would reduce the error caused by variations in spring tension, especially once the spring got a few miles under its belt and faded a bit. I know some of my older stuff that is due for a new spring goes nuts on the last few hours before it winds right down because the tension has just dropped off too much, the amplitude of the balance drops right off and they run quite quickly. Or its somehow to tell you when to stop for DD
The scale indicates a total run time potential of 40 hours, from fully wound to fully run down. I also suspect the watch would run longer than 40 hours on a full wind. Elgin likely recommended winding every 24-hours. 32 minus 8 equals 24. If the watch is wound at the WIND mark on the dial, and wound until the indicator hand reaches the STOP mark, the mainspring will never be fully wound, or fully run down. This is called "running the mainspring on the middle turns". I have never seen that on a wind indicator watch dial, before. Interesting!
It's the angle of the bow since it's positioned aft in that photo...below is a photo with the bow positioned forward along with a depiction of the Keystone J.Boss Streamline case in the Elgin section of the Complete Price Guide To Watches.
Sounds reasonable @Fritz and @Canuck...thanks, sirs! Also, I found this which correlates to what you fine sirs are talking about...