To wind or not to wind - that is the question?

Dear friends,

I have seen many great pictures over the past few weeks of the watches in your collections. Many of those have shown several watches in different types of watch boxes - from the simple travel pouches to the beautiful IWC boxes that store quite a number of watches. But I have not seen any watch winders!!

Now my question to you all is how do you keep the watches you are not wearing?

Do you keep them wound/running (either by wearing them so often, winding them manually or by using a watch winder) - or do you keep them unwound/not running (by letting them run out of energy or by pulling out the crown)?

And what is the best for the movement, to be kept running at all times or to be let to rest in between "duty cycles"?

For the record I keep mine in watch winders and they are running at all times - but I am not sure this is what is best for my watches.

So let's hear it - what do you do and why?

I keep the watches that I wear regularly running, by winding them by hand every morning: a nice relaxing moment between my grooming myself and having breakfast and starting my day. About four watches. The rest of them run out, I wind them about once a month, and let my only active chrono run as well, at least for a day. I never really cared for a winder. Even if my Portuguese Perpetual Calendar runs out, hardly ever, adjusting to the actual date and time is done quickly and kind of fun, and I don't forget how to do this (yes, my brain is still fine).

Kind regards,
Paul

I used to use winders, but not any more. I simply put the watches in a box and let them run down. If I haven't worn one for a while, I'll wind it to let it run and either wear it or just put it back in the box.

I have not seen any ill effects from this, other than the effort to set dates after a watch runs down.

By the way, I may be unusual, but on my two watches with moonphases, I never even bother to set the moon after the watch runs down. I rarely wear (or carry) them for more than a day at a time and the phase of the moon doesn't really matter to me. So I just enjoy looking at the beautiful moon and sky on the watch without worry about whether the moonphase matches reality.

Skule,
I keep all of mine on winders, but that is an option because my collection is still relatively small. I suspect as the collection expands, I will invest in a nice box and wind 'em when I wear 'em!

Most of mine are manual winds, being that I'm a retrogrouch, and it would be a managerie to keep them all wound. And that excludes more than two dozen IWC pocket watches.

I occasionally wind them all and have had no problems with this approach.

No watch winders for me. I wind them all, at least once per month. The most boring part is to go to the bank and take them (I keep some in the safe) to do the job.

This is the balance I found fair, between the dilemma to continously run the watches (wear from use) or keep them steady (clotted oils).

It's boring, very boring, except for the joy it brings to see watches I haven't seen for a long time.

Michael, given your collection of HW whether wrist or PW, how about getting Sidereal winding box for all of them? Problem solved! Sure you can get a discount for quantity!

Not to for me with one exception....the PPC. I keep it wound so I can use it to properly set the moonphase for my Vintage Portofino Moonphase. All the rest, I store in a box in a safe. I enjoy taking them out to wind amass or as I take one out to put into the week's rotation.

Does IWC recommend a watch winder and what are the best TPD settings ( i.e. 650-1) ? I've recently received a Ingenieur Automatic as a gift and I love it.

I'm not sure what IWC officially recommends, although I do know a couple years back boutiques were providing IWC branded swiss Kubik winders with their perpetual watches (which is telling).

In line with the belief that you can't overwind a watch simply by wearing it too much, to reduce wear on the crown from manual winding, and to reduce pooling of oils - I'm a fan of watchwinders. According to this database it says you can rotate your model both clockwise and counter-clockwise at 500-950 TPD.

Regards, Thang

I try to keep two constantly running on a winder. When I start missing my others I rotate them with two others. The only sort of pain in the butt is setting day, date, month and moon phase whenever I choose to wear them. Winders are not necessary but a definite convenience for my "system". I have asked a similar question in the past on a different site and pretty much got a variety of answers similar to the ones here : )

Dear Skule,

It's best to keep your watches running all the time at room temperature to reduce any clotted oil. Also the less you use/stress the crown the better. (This is why they invented automatic ball-bearing winding systems and 7 days movements). I would realy recommend a winder for all the PPC movements! It's a pretty beat up when your quick setting date as you might have experience.
For In-safe use go for a small winder that supports battery's (they will run +/- 3 weeks on 4 AA).

Finally It's best to service and oil the watch every 5 to 7 years to keep accuracy.

Kind regards,

Thanks for all your input - indeed interesting to hear the different approaches.

I guess I may need another watch winder before I can double my IWC collection :o)

Indeed, I bought a watchwinder to house my two watches (one a brand new IWC) - thinking that I wouldn't buy another watch for ages. But within a month I bought another IWC, promised my wife a new watch, AND had to buy a larger watchwinder. Yes, the IWC virus is quite vicious!

Good luck,
Thang

Hello Skule,

Maybe this will be the anwser: W 120cm H 145cm for a stunning 100 watches ;)

Kind regards

Wonder how quickly Shing will take to fill that, I am guessing inside of 5 years!