Wound Up: A Watch Winder Explainer

What is a watch winder?

Great question. A watch winder is a device that keeps an automatic watch’s mainspring wound by gently rotating it when it’s not being worn, ensuring the movement is running, and the time and date are always correct. Depending on the style of winder you buy, it can also make a handsome display case for your timepieces.

How does that work, exactly?

An automatic (also known as “self-winding”) watch is powered by the kinetic force of your body when you’re wearing it. Most automatic watches use an oscillating weight, the semi-circular piece you might be able to see through your watch’s sapphire case back, which is often ornately decorated or engraved with a logo. When you move your arm, the weight rotates, winding the mainspring and keeping the movement ticking along. When you take the watch off, however, the mainspring will eventually wind down, and when it runs out of power the watch will stop. A winder is designed to rotate the oscillating weight just enough to keep the mainspring wound and keep your watch running in perpetuity.

Do I need one?

It depends on a few things. If you have one automatic watch that you wear pretty much every day, a winder will be of limited use to you. Why? Since your watch likely has enough power reserve (the amount of time a watch will run on its own between windings) to last overnight or over the weekend, you don’t have to worry about it running out of juice. If, however, you have a collection of automatic watches and like to switch them up every day, storing your watches in winders will assure they are wound, set, and ready to go whenever you want to put one on. Essentially, a winder saves you the hassle of having to reset the time and date if you haven’t worn a particular watch for a while. For this reason, if your collection includes pieces with difficult-to-adjust complications like annual calendars, perpetual calendars, or moon phases, a winder will be extremely useful.

Is there a downside to keeping my watches in winders?

Possibly. Until recently, conventional wisdom said that if you let a watch sit for too long between windings, the lubricants in the movement could congeal and gum up its delicate internal components. Since modern watches (and modern lubricants) don’t have this issue, you probably won’t be doing any damage to your watch by keeping it in a drawer or a safe when not in use. While modern lubricants don’t congeal, however, they do evaporate over time, which is why it’s important to have your watch serviced every 4 to 6 years (or whatever time frame the manufacturer recommends). For that reason, if a watch is long overdue for service and is left on a winder for an extended period, it could potentially damage the movement.

What should I look for in a winder?

Glad you asked. Like most of the best things in the world, the best winders come from brands that specialize in them and build them from high-quality materials. You should also look for a winder that’s programmable with bi-directional rotation. The reason? Your watch’s mainspring isn’t designed to be fully wound all of the time, but rather to wind and unwind through the normal course of a day. A programmable winder can be set to a certain number of turns per day (TPD) according to your watch model’s specs and will ensure it gets just the right amount of winding in the right direction. A good quality winder that’s going to double as a display case should also, naturally, be nice to look at, but it should also be whisper-quiet. Nothing says poor quality like a winder you can hear from the other side of the room. An inferior quality winder from a no-name brand won’t last as long or look as nice as a good quality one, but more importantly, it could actually damage your watch by overwinding it or – worst case scenario – by magnetizing it if the motor isn’t properly shielded.

How do I choose a winder that will suit my needs?

Choosing a winder requires taking a few things into account, most importantly the size of your collection. If you have one particularly special watch that would benefit from a winder – a perpetual calendar, for example – a high-quality single cube winder will fit the bill nicely. You can always add additional single-watch winders later if needed. If you’re looking for a winder that will double as a display case, you can put your favourite pieces on show with two, three, six watch models, and more. Ultimately, the winder you choose will suit your aesthetic needs and the size of your collection, but most importantly it will help you take care of your timepieces for many years to come.

Jeremy Freed is a Toronto-based freelance journalist. His writing about menswear, travel, design and sustainability appears in Sharp, GQ, the Globe and Mail and many more.