Automatic watches are designed to be hand-wound as well as self-winding through motion. In fact, giving your watch a few manual winds each day ensures it stays fully powered, especially if you're not wearing it regularly or have a more sedentary lifestyle. It won’t harm the movement — as long as you wind gently and stop when you feel resistance.
Hand-winding your automatic watch when you take it off your wrist helps maintain accurate timekeeping and prolongs its mechanical health. Here's why:
1. Maintain Power Reserve
Automatic watches rely on wrist movement to wind themselves. When off the wrist, they stop receiving kinetic energy. Manually winding them ensures the mainspring stays charged, avoiding the watch stopping prematurely.
2. Ensure Accurate Timekeeping
Low power reserve can cause a mechanical watch to run slow or erratically. Hand-winding gives it a full charge, helping it keep consistent and accurate time even when not worn.
3. Reduce Wear on Movement
Letting the watch fully stop and then restarting it repeatedly can put unnecessary strain on the movement. Keeping it wound reduces frequent stop-start cycles, which helps protect the mechanism over time.
4. Convenience
If you wind your watch before storing it, it's ready to go the next time you wear it — no need to reset the time or date.
How to Wind Properly
Turn the crown gently (usually 20–40 turns clockwise) until you feel slight resistance. Don’t overwind — most modern automatics have mechanisms to prevent damage, but caution is still wise.
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