[tony20009]

Originally Posted by kscarrol

Yes, Wolf makes very nice winders! I was trying to start RedDotRacer off slowly, more entry level. Ultimately you can end up spending as much for the winder as you do for the watch, if not more!

Well, let's hope nobody is loon enough to think they need to buy a $4K winder to keep a $4K watch wound.

Originally Posted by kscarrol

It's all about what you're willing to spend! Brookstone has a single watch winder for $99. As owen points out, you can likely find the Wolf winders on sale for a similar price.

If you wear the watch all the time, a winder is likely not needed. Winding and resetting on Monday morning is not a big deal in my view. But for idiots like me who have multiple watches, a winder is required to keep my watches ready to wear.

Please leave my name off of all "idiot" categories, regardless of the topic. LOL It's been a long time since I did something I knew to be a waste of effort even before I bothered to do it.

As for watch winders, I don't bother with them. IMO, the only watches worth bothering with an auto-winder (AW) are those that are a serious pain to reset to the correct time, date and, where applicable, astronomic depiction. That basically means perpetual calendars and selected moonphase and/or other celestially oriented watches. The other ones that are worth the bother of an AW, IMO, are the ones that have huge, huge 90+ hour power reserves. The latter group of watches may call for an AW if they are the type that need the power reserve to be substantially full before they start ticking on their own.

I have no idea why a watch can go for days on end, but once it's totally empty, it needs several days worth of "juice" before it'll go again. I do know, however, that several days of juice is a lot of winding....and yes, I'm aware of the UN perp cal that isn't a hassle to adjust, but that's one watch out of how many perp cals? That said, nobody buying a perp cal needs me to discuss the pros and cons of AWs.

I suppose there may be other watches having sufficiently complex movements that putting them on a winder reduces serious risk, such as it does with perp calendars or reduces long wait times as it can with some astronomical complications. If after reading the directions, it seems to me to be of value to mount up an AW, I will.

Well, that's when/with what watches I would bother with an AW. So why don't I bother with winders for all the rest? For several reasons.

• Movement Accuracy: All mechanical movements gain or lose some few seconds every day. Most fall somewhere between four and 12 seconds per day. I'm going to have to adjust the watch, AW or no AW, when I decide to wear it again.
• Maintenance: Watch companies' recommended service intervals are based on an assumption that a watch is worn daily or nearly so. Putting a watch on a winder pretty well ensures that one will require maintenance as recommended. Not operating the watch all the time can extend the maintenance interval.
• Wear: If one isn't going to wear a given watch daily, making sure it operates for about 30 minutes a month or so will keep the internal lubricants distributed and not clumped up while keeping the actual wear of the parts to a minimum level.
• Practicality: Gravity has an affect on the wear and the accuracy of watches as a result of how the watch moves through space on the wearer's wrist. If one is going to get a winder, particularly one for a haute horology perp cal or astronomic complication -- watches that start at $10K, one will want one that fairly well replicates the range and duration of motion assumed by the maker. In other words, one that's programmable, and that spins in a very wide variety of planes. Such a winder would be just fine to use if I want to merely be self-indulgent and doen't mind the recurring maintenance and wear impacts. It'll need to be able to handle power outages so that it "winds" on schedule, unless I want to reprogram it, which will take more effort than just setting and giving a little kick to a watch that's stopped. Unfortunately, such winders generally cost $1K or more. Personally, I just don't see the point of spending that much to save myself one minute or less on the few occasions I have to deal with setting a watch. Even if I have to adjust my watch 60 times a year, that's an hour at the most.
• Collection Size: Once one gets past four watches or so, it's almost impossible not to gravitate to one or two favorites. All the rest become "occasion" watches, whether that occasion is the outfit one is wearing, the nature of an event, the weather, the nature of a trip, etc. That's certainly been pretty true for me and other collectors I know. That pretty well makes the first three points above pretty relevant for me. So there isn't much point in bothers.

All the best.