Wednesday 18 June 2014

How to: Use and maintain your automatic watch.

Automatic watches are hugely popular.But most of the people except us, watch enthusiasts,do not know properly know what is an automatic watch?Well, I have tried to explain it in more detail this time.
Automatic watches are also mechanical watches but with the addition of a rotor and a set of winding gears which wind the watch with the movement of the wearer's wrist.We will not go in detail of the workings of it as I have explained it in my earlier post.
Now let get to the point...
When people get their automatic, it is usually not working as the it's mainspring is not wound.What I recommend is to wind it 20-30 turns,180 degrees turns.Some of the people will go"Oh!just give it a few shakes..."Well a few shakes will give it only a small amount of power.In case it is a Seiko 5 or some other watch which you cannot wind by hand, I recommend turning it 30-50 times in both the directions. One thing I want to bring to you people's notice is that you cannot overwind an automatic watch. Please do not try that on any cheap Chinese watch as you do not know what mechanism they have inside.It could just be a normal hand-wound  movement which is modified to an automatic movement without changing the barrel. Even if it is an expensive watch do not try that again and again, as it will wear down the mechanism that prevents it from overwinding.
Another thing is servicing. I recommend servicing the watch after 3-6 years of the previous service.
Well if you follow those rules, your watch will last a lifetime.It may even outlive you!
Cheers!
V.Mittal

9 comments:

  1. what about patek philipp watches?are they handwound or automatic?

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    1. some are hand wound like the chronograph ref. 5970.some are automatic like the annual calendar.

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  3. do they make quarts battery operated watches too?
    Rajat

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  4. In 1970s and 1980s they made some but now I do not think they make any.

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  5. why only think?are you not sure of yourself.kindly confirm with facts.

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  6. @ rajat kant looks like my knowledge towards some brands is less than yours.

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