WatchUSeek Watch Forums banner

Automatic winding performance for 7 day movements?

997 views 3 replies 2 participants last post by  Ajoin 
#1 ·
Hello,

Since a week I own a Portugieser Automatic (5007-03) that I bought on the pre-owned market. This is my first IWC watch and is actually a timepiece that I have been thinking about / following for about a decade. Thus far, the accuracy of the watch turns out to be great (about +5" per day).
As indicated in the title of the post, my question relates to the winding performance. I have worn the watch for about 5 days now (8-12h per day) and I have noticed that during the day the automatic winding system more or less (actually slightly less) compensates for the power that is lost during the night (when it is not on my wrist). Since I am wearing the watch, the power reserve fluctuates between 5.5 and 6 days. I must add that I am working in an (home-)office environment though.
Is this the winding performance that can be expected from the newer 5007 models please? And does the winding performance decrease as the power reserve increases (so slower build-up as the maximum power reserve is attained)? The watch was first sold to the original owner in early 2018, so I feel it is a bit early to hand it over for service... unless you would advise otherwise.
Any thoughts or experiences on this matter are much appreciated!

Best regards,

Tim
 
See less See more
#2 ·
Hmmm... Not too many responses to this post :)
Maybe I should have added that this is my first automatic with 7 days of power reserve and a power reserve indicator... Actually my (newbie) questions are the following:
1) Is the automatic winding behavior linear? i.e. does it take the same amount of movement / wrist action to get it from 2 to 3 days of reserve as to get it from 6 to 7 days
2) What automatic winding performance can be expected? When on the wrist for 8 hours (office + walking), I gain about 0.5 days (12 hours) of reserve max. Is that normal?

I am letting it run out of power to experiment a bit by myself... but that takes time :)

Any thoughts from fellow owners of a Portuguese or BP are most welcomed.

Enjoy your weekend,

Tim
 
#3 ·
The torque of the main spring decreases as it unwinds. So, I would assume that the autowinder works against a higher and higher torque as it winds the main spring. However, I don't think that matters, because I assume (don't know) that the winder typically proceeds in single fractional turns (at most, half turns) as the orientation of the watch changes.

If that is true, then as long as the torque exerted by the oscillating weight (with its gearing) is larger than the torque of the main spring, it doesn't matter by how much: the weight will drop to the new lowest location, winding the main spring just a little bit, and then stay there until the watch changes orientation again. So the winding rate would mostly depend on the frequency of hand/arm movements.

But I would also be interested in learning more about this from somebody who actually knows...

The good thing is your watch tells you whether it is about to run out of power.
A quick google search found this IWC article, which seems to indicate that what you are observing should not happen: The Watch Mainspring - all wound up | IWC Schaffhausen

On the other hand, 5 days is very short for the 7 day spring to equalize to your wearing habits. Who knows, maybe it levels out at 4 days power reserve after a few weeks, and maybe the level at which it levels out is dependent on the wear pattern. One way to find out.
Enjoy your new watch!
 
#4 ·
Hi LCheapo,

Many thanks for sharing your thoughts and providing the link to the IWC article. Interesting that they mention that loading the power reserve ranges from a few hours for very active people to a full day in less active conditions, and that winding requires 2000 full revolutions of the rotor.
Would the behavior described in the article match with the consensus view of owners on this forum?

btw, I started a similar discussion on IWC’s forum yesterday.

Thanks again!

Best regards,
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top