I have a watch from one of the well respected micro brands with the STP movement. The watch always had a lot of resistance when hand winding and after a few months would not restart after pushing the crown back in. The owner of the micro brand told me there were lubrication issues with the STP so I sent the watch back to him for repair. Upon return, it was slightly better but after a month the stem broke. I have had quite a few watches over the years and this is the only time I've broken a stem. My local watch tech replaced the stem and managed to adjust it so the winding effort is much easier. I also have a watch with the ETA 2824 and the winding resistance is also noticeably stiffer than any of my Seiko or Citizen watches so that may be inherent in the design of the STP and ETA.
Hard to draw conclusions on my limited experience though.
Hard to draw conclusions on my limited experience though.
