You just can’t control the amplitude and amount of your movements all day every day, right? When the mainspring is fully wound, the rotor inside the watch will stop spinning in the direction in which it winds the mainspring.īecause you are moving your arm all day long, watch manufacturers had to find a way to prevent you from accidentally over-winding the mainspring. Automatic watches have a mechanism that winds the mainspring every time you move, but only if it’s not already fully wound. This is because the power reserve of a mechanical watch is 38 hours or more. If you keep your automatic watch on your wrist all day long, remove it for the night, and then put it again on your wrist the next morning, your automatic watch will run forever without you doing anything. Notice the rotor hiding the bottom part of the mechanism. In order to keep it running, you will have to wind it at regular intervals.Īn automatic mechanical watch. Depending on the power reserve of the watch and how much you wound the mainspring, the watch will stop sooner or later. This is done either by hand or automatically, depending on the type of mechanical watch.Ī manual winding watch is a mechanical that you have to wind by hand for the movement to start running (hence the name). In order for the mainspring to deliver power, it has to be wound. None of them require a battery, as the power needed for a mechanical movement to run is stored in the mainspring. Meaning, they feature a complete mechanical mechanism (called movement) that runs the watch. The difference between an automatic and a manual winding watchįirst of all: manual winding and automatic watches are both mechanical watch. Make sure to know exactly what type of watch you have before winding it manually, as well well as the consequences of winding it completely and what are the causes if it stops.
Manual winding watches will let you know when the mainspring is fully wound: you will feel a resistance and the winding stem will stop moving. This is when you should stop winding your watch.īeware of low quality and very old watch: they can still use older mechanisms that were not designed to protect the mainspring from over-winding. The winding mechanism will simply decouple from the mainspring when it is fully wound, winding into infinity. But if you’re just started as a watch enthusiast, it can be hard to know what you should or shouldn’t do, and if you can overwind a watch.Ĭan you overwind a watch? You can’t over-wind modern automatic watches. So do all hand-wound (only) mechanical watches. Most modern automatic watches today can be hand-wound.
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