Watch Winders?

[ausimax]

Has anyone had experience with these type of multiple watch winders?





I purchased one, well not actually the Bergeon at $550 a bit rich for me, I got the El Cheapo for $55.






I loaded 6 watches, 5 I had previously serviced over the last couple of years and a brand new Chinese auto, I ran it for 24 hours and at the end of that time none of the watches was running and none were wound.

I thought perhaps the auto mechanisms were tight and not rotating freely, the Chinese was easy to check, glass case back - rotor turning freely and mechanism winding,, I removed the backs from the other watches and the story was the same all rotating and winding.

Now this machine is basically the same in action as the Bergeon and rotates at 4 RPM, but not overjoyed with the result.

This morning I made a bracket to mount the winder vertically, and mounted two watches, the Chinese auto and my Seiko 6119-6023 that had been in the original test, both watches were stopped so I set the time to 12 and started the winder, within minutes both had fired up and now 4 hours later they are still running.

It seems the gentle rotation motion was not enough to get them excited and they needed a rougher ride to get them going.

Has anyone experienced similar problems with this type of winder?

[Henry]

That looks cool although I never owned on myself... For 2 watches could I suggest the solution below? 5 minutes per day should do it 

[acidstain]

Possibly 6 watches was too heavy for the el cheapo to carry properly?

[ausimax]

Jan 22, 2019 18:47:50 GMT -8 Henry said:

That looks cool although I never owned on myself... For 2 watches could I suggest the solution below? 5 minutes per day should do it 

No turns the wrong way would unwind them, see I'm in the Southern Hemisphere.

[ausimax]

Jan 22, 2019 19:21:56 GMT -8 acidstain said:

Possibly 6 watches was too heavy for the el cheapo to carry properly?

No the winder was turning them with no trouble, just seemed to be to slow and gentle, that may become a factor when I mount  6 running in the vertical position though it seems to have plenty of grunt.

[HiBeat]

My local watchmaker has this general design, good to show off what he has repaired I guess, too - and his is mounted flat.  Somehow it works.

I have a cheapie tilted 2-watch auto winder winds some but won't wind some other watches.  I finally figured out that is because the tilt is too small, so I stuffed something under the back side to increase the angle and now any watch I put on it stays wound.   My Wolf single watch winder is straight up and down never an issue.

[Myles]

That's really not a winder per se; it's more of a "wrist simulator" to test watches on after a service.

[acidstain]

The watch must be tight on the “cradles” so they rotate on their axis while doing the revolution. Kinda like how the earth turns, not like how a ferris wheel couch turns.

[siralan]

I bought a 2nd hand Bergeon one of these. And, found the same thing as you - this design appears to work best when wall mounted (which is what the eye hook on the side of the case is for).

Its a great piece of kit for simulating wrist wear (and therefore testing that an automatic is self winding).

Not cheap (even 2nd hand) but a good investment.

[pip]

Yep, not a watch winder as such, it's a piece of servicing kit. If you look at the first pic of the posh Bergeon one you will see some instructions on the centre hub and that it is for "Final Testing" of watches that you have worked on.

[ausimax]

Myles/pip

Yes I am aware of what the item is, I have a "Watch Winder" the maintenance type, works to Union Rules 1 hour on 3 hours off, absolutely useless for giving about 80 watches their annual checkup.

[ausimax]

Jan 22, 2019 23:03:54 GMT -8 acidstain said:

The watch must be tight on the “cradles” so they rotate on their axis while doing the revolution. Kinda like how the earth turns, not like how a ferris wheel couch turns.

 They are tight, those spring cradles are really strong, can be a struggle trying to get them in at times, they have thumbscrews holding the shaft into the rotating boss, that makes it easier as you can fit the watches off the machine.

[ausimax]

Jan 22, 2019 23:38:34 GMT -8 siralan said:

I bought a 2nd hand Bergeon one of these. And, found the same thing as you - this design appears to work best when wall mounted (which is what the eye hook on the side of the case is for).

Its a great piece of kit for simulating wrist wear (and therefore testing that an automatic is self winding).

Not cheap (even 2nd hand) but a good investment.

Yes that is what I wanted it for, to test the collection and keep the oil flowing, vertical mounting seems to be the answer adding that extra dimension to the process makes the difference.

The Bergeon models are a bit on the pricey side, I went with the cheap Chinese model as I only have cheap watches.

[pip]

Jan 23, 2019 13:06:54 GMT -8 ausimax said:

Myles/pip

Yes I am aware of what the item is, I have a "Watch Winder" the maintenance type, works to Union Rules 1 hour on 3 hours off, absolutely useless for giving about 80 watches their annual checkup.

Apologies ausimax , didn’t mean to come across as patronising.

[ausimax]

Jan 23, 2019 13:43:19 GMT -8 pip said:

Jan 23, 2019 13:06:54 GMT -8 ausimax said:

Myles/pip

Yes I am aware of what the item is, I have a "Watch Winder" the maintenance type, works to Union Rules 1 hour on 3 hours off, absolutely useless for giving about 80 watches their annual checkup.

Apologies ausimax , didn’t mean to come across as patronising.

No apologies needed pip, I didn't mean to come across as offended, the written word is not as able to express your meaning as speaking to someone, what I was trying to highlight was just how useless "watch winders" are at actually winding watches for testing,