So does hand winding an automatic daily hurt it? I remember reading an explanation here by WUS member that said it wasn't good to do it all the time. But yeah, your thoughts greatly appreciated.

Manually winding doesn't hurt the movement more than the automatic mechanism usually does.

But if your watch has a screwdown crown it's not recommended to use the crown daily if you don't want to kill the crown tube.

 

As much as I love winding my hand winds, I dread unscrewing a screw down crown to wind it. I have a Tag with a very finicky screw down crown and every other watch reminds me of it. They (Automatics with screw down crowns - I think) are not designed for daily, or perhaps even frequent regular winding. Having said that, I have also read that automatics could do with a hand wind every month or so, just to keep it "all happening," which I tend to agree with. If it is not a screw down, I am not aware of any disadvantages of giving it a wind every now and then, especially if needed to keep it tickin'.
If I pick up an auto and it is not ticking, I always give it a wind just to get a bit of reserve up.
As far as permanently winding an auto, hopefully someone will chime in on that one.

Regards
Mark

 

you wont be damaging the movement itself by handwinding automatics. but on some automatics the manual wind gears arent constructed as
durable as on a manual wind watch. because frankly, you shouldnt need to manual wind a automatic watch ever. even from a dead stop.
some of the budget Seiko auto movements cant even be manual wound. just gently shake them left and right for a couple of seconds and
off you go.

 

This is what I've heard by a reputable watch dealer. The wind gears on autos (not sure if this means all autos or some) are thin and have delicate teeth that are more easily worn / damaged than a dedicated hand wind movement.

 

... So it gets put on the nightstand and I go sans watch for many hours. When I do that, the watch runs a little bit slow. But when I wind it by hand when I know I won't be wearing it that day much, it runs almost dead-on.

So does hand winding an automatic daily hurt it? I remember reading an explanation here by WUS member that said it wasn't good to do it all the time. But yeah, your thoughts greatly appreciated.

The only time I hand wind my autos is to get them going when they've not been worn - and only just enough to get the movement running (say half a dozen turns of the crown).

All the 2824s I've owned run a little fast on the wrist. If your watch runs slow off the wrist, that's a good opportunity to self-regulate it by finding which resting position will compensate. Just a bit of experimenting needed - and less wear and tear on the winding mechanism.

 

If you can wind by the crown, most are, you wind it by the crown.

 

I know a guy who was a regular on WUS a few years ago. He had a stable of autos which he handwound daily if he wasn't wearing them. He ended up replacing a bunch of parts in the winding mechanisms of several of his pieces after a few years of this. In my view they call them "self-winding" for a reason.

 

This 100%

 

I don't get this. Of my autos, the only one that to start from being picked up is the $65 Chinese and that only needs a couple of shakes. Everything else is running by the time I've picked it up, set the time and strapped it on. I really think you are making something out of nothing here. Why don't you try just letting the rotor do its job?

 

how do you hand-wind and auto?

 

With a crank :-s

 

You just tweak one of those.

 

I have a similar situation and ended up recently with a 4 page post of responses. I still don't think we ever got it settled due to many conflicting opinions on what is correct. I am still curious as to if the daily winding really does damage to the winding mechanisms.

 

Your question was answered correctly many times in your original thread. From what you say, you are unable to wear the watch or swirl for a few minutes to wind the mainspring. So that leaves hand winding. If thats what you have to do, then do it. Whether it harms the watch is immaterial, since you cannot even use the watch without handwinding it, given your situation. If it breaks, then it breaks. But it will likely work that way for many years.

 

I liken it to a car that sits in the garage. While it should be started and driven periodically, starting it more often than is needed to preserve the coatings of oil on seals etc. is only putting more wear on the parts that bear on each other.

 

Thank you Eric and everyone else for the helpful info. I had let it go like Eric said until I came across this thread, and just thought I would express my similar frustration like the original poster. Eric thank you for putting it that way, makes perfect sense. As for the " how do you wind an auto" I have not quoted that and the reply seemed to come across a little sarcastic. If I want sarcasm I'll just ask my wife instead of on here

 

I know this is an old thread now but I am forced to manual wind my self winding Tissot PRC200 Auto Chrono (C01.211 movement) because the self winding rotor does not rotate smoothly anymore, thus developing very less reserve even with long wearing hours. I had written about this in the Tissot forum here but didn't get many suggestions unfortunately. The situation with this watch is unique and I am sure nobody else has this. When the crown is tightened, the self winding rotor gets very stiff on the winding direction and as soon as you loosed the crown a bit the rotor starts to spin freely. So the crown in tight position is stiffening the rotor which makes no sense and hence not building enough reserve. I can always wear the watch with the crown un-tightened but that risks water and dust coming through.

Had shown it to a watchmaker and he just immediately said the watch is working fine and the rotor should be like that but at the time I hadn't discovered the rotor stiffens only when the crown is tightened. Is there anything else I can myself to try to get this to smoothen out? Tissot here is charging $300 to just have a look and that's without fixing anything so I cant go that way really.

 

I know this is an old thread now but I am forced to manual wind my self winding Tissot PRC200 Auto Chrono (C01.211 movement) because the self winding rotor does not rotate smoothly anymore, thus developing very less reserve even with long wearing hours. I had written about this in the Tissot forum here but didn't get many suggestions unfortunately. The situation with this watch is unique and I am sure nobody else has this. When the crown is tightened, the self winding rotor gets very stiff on the winding direction and as soon as you loosed the crown a bit the rotor starts to spin freely. So the crown in tight position is stiffening the rotor which makes no sense and hence not building enough reserve. I can always wear the watch with the crown un-tightened but that risks water and dust coming through.

Had shown it to a watchmaker and he just immediately said the watch is working fine and the rotor should be like that but at the time I hadn't discovered the rotor stiffens only when the crown is tightened. Is there anything else I can myself to try to get this to smoothen out? Tissot here is charging $300 to just have a look and that's without fixing anything so I cant go that way really.

You need to find another service shop. All mechanical chronograph movements are expensive to service because they are complex. Lots more parts than a standard 3 hand rotor wound movement. So expect service cost of around USD500. Your watch needs to be serviced to prevent any more damage.

 

find another watchmaker? seriously, i don't know what you paid for that watch but if it costs more to fix it than it's worth either put up with the problem or get another watch...

 

Yes I am going to try showing it to another watchmaker next month as i am going overseas. Things like this costs an arm and a leg here in Western Australia as there are only a couple of watchmakers to start with. So they ask you for anything on their mind.

 

I frequently handwind my automatics (by turning the crown). They don't get full power by arm movement. On most days, I wear a watch for only 3-4 hours (the time I have to go to work) and I want to keep it running so that I don't have to set it every time (I also want to keep track of how much time it has gained/lost). This is also why I don't like the hard-to-screw-down crowns. However, I read that unscrewing and screwing the crown everyday is not good (from wear and tear point of view), so now I try to wear it for a week on the go and then let it stop and wear another watch. Also, I don't want to spend on a watch winder.

 

I used to be like that with this watch when i got it initially 4 years ago. Full wing it and wear it for a day and then let it go flat till I decide to wear it again. But when I wear it I wear it for over 12 hours everyday now but it stops after a week because the rotor isn't winding enough. Some days I feel like wearing it with the crown unscrewed for about 2 turns (before it pops out of case) so the rotor spins freely.

Read in another post that winding the watch vigorously for few minutes should smoothen out the rotor but that hasn't done anything too. Looks like I will have to either use it with the crown unscrewed for a bit or have it wound every couple of days like a manual watch till I get it fixed out hopefully by a reasonable watchmaker. What surprises me is that this is such an unusual case like nobody else has experienced it so far.

 

Leave the poor auto alone! Shake it up, wear it and be happy. There are enough 2824-2 horror stories about damage from hand-winding for me to just enjoy an auto-winding watch for what it is: auto-winding.

 

will do. Where are the horror stories ?

 

Completely fine, although if it's a screw down crown I wouldn't bother.

Sent from my mobile. Please excuse any typos.

 

I do. I've only got three days a week to wear something other than my Timex and even I'm in the mood every now and then to wear the Swatch or Casio. So I do wind the autos here and there. Especially the Longines since it's a pain to reset.

 

Got to a service centre to show my watch as it is stopping every few hours/minutes after a full wind. The service centre had a look and said straight away they cannot do a service on this movement and it needs to be replaced. The price for replacing the movement is almost same price as the watch brand new. So my story with this PRC200 ended pretty sad. Should have been careful not to buy a 15 jewel silicone based non serviceable movement.

 

Bad experience with silicone, huh?

 

The Selitta SW200 is exactly the same (as it should be, its a clone of the 2824)

The Miyota 9015 is completely different, hand-winding it is faultless (similar feeling to the 6R15)

Ive never had my hands on a ETA 2892 watch, is it similar to the 2824 or not?

 

Ive never had my hands on a ETA 2892 watch, is it similar to the 2824 or not?

They are effortless. The 2824 will sometimes spin the rotor if the winding works aren't perfect (and if the watch is horizontal when winding). I've never experienced that with a 2892.

It's mostly a matter of the gearing. My Zenith is harder to wind because it has a bigger spring without gearing down the keyless works.

Rick "who finds the 2892 the easiest to wind of all his watches" Denney

 

I've got a 2824-2 that broke while handwinding :-(
It's never happened to me with any other watch.

 

And? And? This is why I use Winders. ......WATCH WINDERS, your watch's BEST BUDDY...:-!

 

Sounds like you found yourself a great excuse to get a new automatic watch with a power reserve complication.

 

Good to know. There simply aren't enough watches available these days with the 2892, seems to be getting rare.

I've certainly experienced the rotor spin with both the 2824 and the SW200, even to the point where it literally shakes the watch as the rotor has spun so quickly. Obviously after that I stopped as that did not feel right in the slightest.

 

New development with the watch..it is now winding and keeping time while not stopping for the past two weeks. Only thing is I have to start and stop the chronograph and the watch is running smoothly. Will test.in a few days after resetting the chronograph to see if it still keeps going. So maybe something was stuck in the chronograph section that caused the watch to seize up every few hours..the Tissot is back in action lol