Winding a manual watch.
My question is about how to properly (correctly) wind a manual watch. I have seen both type of answers online (different for automatic ones). One approach is (i) winding in a single direction - clockwise. The other is (ii) doing a clockwise/counterclockwise movement.
What I've noticed that by going back and forth it can take a bit of more winding, otherwise stiffness comes after only a few winds (having said so it may be my watch that needs repair - as per my previous post).
Thanks again

 

I always wind in one direction. As an aside, the Brits say 'anticlockwise'. Weird, huh?

 

I always wind it only clockwise. My watchmaker does both ways. I asked why and he told me they should withstand it...

 

Only the CW direction will actually wind the mainspring, and the CCW direction does not. You do still hear ticking, but that is the Breguet/wolf teeth on the winding and sliding pinion running against each other.

Winding CW only does eliminate the added motion and wear that happens, although the wear is slight it will happen over time, that comes with winding CCW.

Cheers, Al

 

I had no idea you could wind a watch any other way than clockwise??? Why would you want to?

 

English is our language. We've been working on it for 2000 years, so we make the rules. You're only renting it until you come up with your own. In the mean time we are always pleased to help:

Definition of Anticlockwise: Opposite of, reverse.

Anti- should not be confused with ante-, which is a prefix of Latin origin meaning before. (However, anti- does exist as a variant spelling ofante- in some borrowed words, such as anticipate and antipasto, but this spelling cannot be used to coin English words.)

 

Al explained pretty much everything! Turning the crown clockwise (when you are facing it), that shall wind your watch. As others said, the other direction doesn't really wind it, and should not cause any significant harm. Of course, whatever you do to a watch will cause some sort of wear and tear, therefore turning the crown anticlockwise for nothing isn't the best thing to do.

BUT who knows, you might have a special watch that winds in both direction

 

While the use of counterclowise might have been counterintuitive; άντι Κύθηρα, another island opposite of Kithira.

 

Skinkon your avatar brings back so many memories of playing half life lol! I can hear the intro music now...

Sorry back on topic.

Yes just don’t overwind .

 

Perfect. Thanks for the answer - yes I am aware that the ACW (or CCW) movement does not wind but had it in my head that some sort of "recoil" borrowing the word. Thanks again everyone for the answers.

 

Just to illustrate what the winding backwards contributes to in terms of wear, this is a brand new winding pinion (still in the package) and it has the Breguet teeth on it:



Here is the same part that came out of a watch I serviced recently, and you can see the that ramped area of the teeth is worn a fair bit:



And this is the corresponding teeth on the sliding pinion, also worn:



Cheers, Al

 

Makes one wonder, why construct a watch and allow it to wind backwards, and have additional parts to wear, when simply winding forward, rather than forward and then backwards, seems to be sufficient, and the latter, not a huge benefit.

 

A. L. Breguet got sick of lazy people unwinding the crowns and losing them when trying to do the CW/ACW wind method, so he invented a mechanism to allow ACW/CW winding without loosening the crown.