Do I need a winder for my PPC ?

Hi guys. Just a quick question. Is a winder recommended for a Perpetual Calendar watch? I have been reading conflicting opinions about winders, including some that says a winder actually introduce unwanted wear and tear to the movement.

I think it all depends on how frequently you will wear your Portuguese Perpetual Calendar. With a 7 day power reserve, you can wear the watch jut once per week and all should be fine.

For many years, I did not use winders at all. However, recently, I did begin to tire at that the routine of having to set the time and date of my perpetual calendars. In fact, there were a couple of my watches that I had not worn for several months and they needed to be advanced. In my haste to set the date/time on one of my Portuguese Perpetual Calendars - I advanced the date far too rapidly, and the watch briefly "observed" November, 31st. This got the day/date and everything all out of sorts and. I had to send the watch in to be re-synced. A $400 mistake on my part. I should have advanced the date far more slowly - I had not worn it for 3 months - and just lost my patience - clicking though the dates really fast like a slot machine...

I actually feel that manually moving the crown out, and quick-advancing the date puts far more stress on the watch than if it is on a winder, and smoothly keeping time and advancing the calendar on its own each evening.

Just be sure the winder you select is not a "cheap one". Some may suggest that the real cheap ones have electro-magnetic issues and could "magnetize" your balance and affect timekeeping. After all, it a PPC, it would deserve some nice, quiet, programmable motor and suede, leather, crystal, chrome, burled wood finish, etc...

100 owners = 110 opinions.

However, if you have an IWC perpetual and you want to prevent the risk of accidentally either advancing the date to a date aheador getting the day/date out of sync* then the best is to keep it on a winder.

• there is no going back, so if you accidently advance it to a year or few months ahead and dont want to wait it out with the watch waiting for the real date to catch up, then only Schaffhausen can reset it.

** this can happen on the IWC if the owner gets too impatient when advancing / setting the date, and tries to do it too fast. Some extra pressure on the crown and the day and date get out of sync - this too, requires a visit to the watchmaker.

Please do heed the instructions that came with the watch. IWC these days put it in bold on red paper - serious damage to the movement can occur if you try to set the date / time during the "black out period" (when the perpetual mechanism has already started to advance the hands well before the midnight mark) and neither should you ever attempt to adjust backwards.

In short, I keep mine on winders.

Hi Ben, I have only very recently joined the perpetual club... but I'm definitely keeping it in a winder. Any concern about wear and tear can partially be addressed by getting a programmable one - in other words i can limit the number of rotations per day and also delay the start of winding (e.g. if i have 5 days of power reserve left i can choose to have it start 4 days later).

regards,
thang

I agree with Mark. A winder is the way to go.

Thanks guys for your replies. What do you all think about Buben & Zorwerg winders? Are there the best?

An IWC watch winder comes with the purchase of a PPC, it does over at my side.

Mine does not unfortunately :(