

The best watch winders of 2020 and beyond include brands like Wolf, Barrington, Rapport and Leader. Some of the features that separate the best from the rest are quiet motors, directional settings, warranty and the level of finish. Some are available for minimal fees, while the more sophisticated winders cost several hundred pounds. Like many products, there are different levels to watch winders. This can be critical in ensuring your watch isn’t overworked while in a winder. Better watch winders come with a programmable timer that stops the rotation after a certain period. Leaving a watch in a winder for an extended period, or even forgetting about it, can result in repairs being needed. To ensure a winder doesn’t damage the workings of your watch we recommend only using them for a day or two at a time. Popping your watches into a winder on rotation ensures they are all working and on time for when you want them. Watch winders make owning an automatic timepiece more convenient, especially if you have several in your collection. That doesn’t mean they aren’t a great tool, however. While not bad for your watch, how inconvenient is it to wind your watch for less than a minute every so often?Ĭonsidering the cost of a decent watch winder, upwards of £100, how necessary are they? Perhaps if you have a perpetual calendar watch that requires extra retuning if it runs out, but other than that not very. It may be better for your watch if you just leave it in a drawer to stop winding if the parts are getting old. This is particularly true if your watch is due for a service soon. If your watch gets left in a winder and forgotten about it may put excess strain on the inner workings.

Watches are like any other piece of machinery and will suffer from wear and tear. One of the biggest risks of putting your watch in a winder is leaving it in there too long. While convenient, some people question are watch winders good or bad for your timepiece. If you leave your watch in a winder you can be confident that it will display the correct time and not need adjustment before wearing. Watch winders also offer a level of convenience for those who don’t want to spend the time winding their timepiece. Large winders can hold multiple watches at a time. Some are small boxes that fit on top of a cabinet while others are large and about the size of a safe. Winders also come in various sizes, depending on how many watches you need winding. Watch winders can be used to simulate the movements of a wrist to help your watch parts keep moving. While they do require winding every so often, when worn this power reserve lasts longer. Automatic watches have been designed to allow the movement of being worn on a wrist to help keep the inner mechanism moving.

To go into more detail, it’s important to understand how automatic watches work a little. Simply, watch winders for automatic watches keep them moving to simulate being worn on a wrist. If the watch isn’t running, the oil won’t pass through the watch parts. They are kept lubricated by fine oil that runs through the mechanism and movements when running. Think of an automatic watch like an expensive car, the longer they sit idly by, the more likely they are to seize up. Watch winders allow the many cogs, springs and levers inside an automatic watch to get some vital use. With the potential for automatic watches to be left by the wayside for days, weeks, or even months at a time, the watch winder was created as a solution. Well, we could wear more than one but there would be little point. However, for watch collectors with several automatic timepieces in their collections, it’s not possible to wear every one.Īfter all, we can only wear one watch at a time. What Are Watch Winders For?Īutomatic watches are sophisticated and complex feats of engineering that are better being used than left idle. Watch winders are advertised as a convenient addition to a watch collection as they save you time winding your timepiece yourself.īut is that the case? Let’s take a closer look at what watch winders do and whether you should add one to your collection. Watch winders do we need them? It’s a question many automatic watch owners have asked, so we decided to answer it!
