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Mechanical (Hand wind) watches.  Rating:  Rating
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 Posted: Fri Dec 11th, 2009 10:47 am
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Ronin1111
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Ok, so I consider myself fairly smart when It comes to watches, with over 120 in my collection, 60% auto, 25% quartz, and the others hand wind, mostly vintage. but I will leave it to the true experts when I have a question.

The question is this, what is the usual required number of turns to get a "full wind" on a mechanical watch? I am terrified to overwind and ruin a main spring, and Normally I wouldnt care, but the issue is this, If I wind my generic chinese seagull 6497 movement (on a pilots dial, not that it matters) about 20 turns, and at the same time wind my Defaubre Classic XL True Unitas 6497 about 20 turns, the unitas doesnt even last a full day. whereas the Seagull lasts well over 30+ hours. (keeping the EXACT same time as the Unitas mind you.) gotta give it to the Chinese, they are coming on strong,
Anyway, am I not winding my Defaubre enough? or whats the deal?
any and all help is MUCH appreciated. thank you in advance.
thankyou.gif

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 Posted: Fri Dec 11th, 2009 11:08 am
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DM71
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Hey Ronin, I'm not an expert but when I wind my mechanical watches, I cranck them until the main spring is fully wounded, which meens up to the point where the crown wont turn anymore.  I don't think you can damage anything unless you really force it when you get to the end.  I also found my hand cankers to keep better time if wounded twice a day, once in the morning and once at night.  Just my experience with Unitas and Russian MOVT.

Hope it helps! hand6.gif 

If what I'm doing is wrong, I would like to know but  this is what Hans, my watch maker told me and I do have trust in his experience and never had any problems so far doing so.

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 Posted: Fri Dec 11th, 2009 11:12 am
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Nabco
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Personally I wind all my manual wind mechanical watches until it stops, normally between 35 and 45 cranks......on the modern movements you don't need to worry about breaking anything, it will not let you overwind.

That said, you mentioned you also have some vintage...at one time I had a fairly large collection of railroad grade pocket watches as well as vintage wristwatches...my rule with those when winding was as soon as I started to feel any resistance i would stop to avoid any problems...


I'm sure if there are other opinions on this they will be posted

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 Posted: Fri Dec 11th, 2009 11:48 am
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Ronin1111
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How can ANYONE go wrong with a watch guy names Hans? mine is Kurt, please. Maybe I can talk him into changing his name. lol. toon1.gif
and yes, I have crap load of vintage hand crankers and those feel sooo fragile sometimes. So I really cant hurt the spring, and 20 turns is most definitely not enough huh?

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 Posted: Fri Dec 11th, 2009 11:54 am
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Ronin1111
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Nabco wrote: Personally I wind all my manual wind mechanical watches until it stops, normally between 35 and 45 cranks......on the modern movements you don't need to worry about breaking anything, it will not let you overwind.

That said, you mentioned you also have some vintage...at one time I had a fairly large collection of railroad grade pocket watches as well as vintage wristwatches...my rule with those when winding was as soon as I started to feel any resistance i would stop to avoid any problems...


I'm sure if there are other opinions on this they will be posted

You know what got me into watches mostly? ( i was a watch guy since at age 6 I received for xmas one of the very first digital watches, black, with red numerals. So vintage that you actually had to press a button to see the time) But I never KNEW i was a watch guy, if that makes sense. I went through about 25 watches in the military that I never kept or paid attention to. (seiko divers, USMC issue watches, some special forces watches. ) Then I bought an Elgin for $1.00 at a garage sale. Hand wind. no strap. clean crystal. threw a leather strap on in and wore it for YEARS. then did a little research on it and put it on the "bay" well, come to find out through my due diligence on it, that it was the very FIRST watch ever certified railroad grade for the US GOV. long story short, it sold for over 300 and the guy who bought it thought he robbed me. Makes me sick to my stomach now that I am a full on watch addict. I would have kept that thing.

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 Posted: Fri Dec 11th, 2009 02:00 pm
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ral
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I crank them until you cannot turn the crown anymore. That is when they are fully wound. When I was a kid, I was told that I would break a watch by over-winding it. I read some time ago that the only way of breaking a 649x would be forcing the crown with a plyer. 

A 6497/8 "-1" should have around 46 hours of reserve. A "-2" would have 53-56 (the other mechanical difference being 18,000 v/s 21,600 vph).

The Seagulls will be in line with the power reserve, with the 21,600 vph homage lasting over 55 hours (that has been my experience at least)

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 Posted: Fri Dec 11th, 2009 02:38 pm
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Todd Caldwell
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Over winding is a myth, wind it until its stops.

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 Posted: Fri Dec 11th, 2009 02:48 pm
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Ronin1111
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WOW! Shows how out of the loop I am. I been treating my mechanical s with kids gloves. I think I am liking the fact that the power reserve is so much longer than an auto on full wind. Now I am starting to truly see the appeal of hand wound watches.
Now, If someone would just invent a hand wind auto winder..... face4.gif

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 Posted: Fri Dec 11th, 2009 03:50 pm
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ral
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I saw an article in the Nov issue of International Watch about extended power reserve watches. For making the cut, 120 hours (!) were required. Most watches over were around 8 days, and one, 31... Surprising stuff.

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 Posted: Fri Dec 11th, 2009 06:25 pm
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AntFarm
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Ronin1111 wrote: WOW! Shows how out of the loop I am. I been treating my mechanical s with kids gloves. I think I am liking the fact that the power reserve is so much longer than an auto on full wind. Now I am starting to truly see the appeal of hand wound watches.
Now, If someone would just invent a hand wind auto winder..... face4.gif

Here you go... http://www.watchcases.com/mawawise.html

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 Posted: Fri Dec 11th, 2009 07:38 pm
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ral
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Here you have one that will do both your Unitas and Seagull

http://airline.stores.yahoo.net/orse2wawi.html

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 Posted: Fri Dec 11th, 2009 07:42 pm
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DM71
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Believe me, I would buy a very nice watch instead of spending that kind of money for a winder!  :D

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