What About Winding?
For several centuries people needed to wind their mechanical watches so these timepieces would work a whole day. Thus watches needed every day winding. Today such watches are history since automatic watches gained a great popularity among watch collectors and enthusiasts.
All in all automatic watches still has the same basic mechanism of a simple manual winding timepiece.
It is worth mentioning that all mechanical watches work in a similar manner.
A rotor, situated inside the watch, sits on a staff in the middle of the movement. This important part of an automatic watch rotates in a circular motion winding the mainspring. The latter is in fact the source of power in a watch. Thus, when one wears a watch, it automatically winds at the move of the hand.
Self-winding watches suite those people who wear the watch each day. In case the watch is not worn frequently, it needs manual winding about twice a week. Automatic watches will function properly if they are wound manually. This is because winding one in two weeks helps keep the watch lubricated. Often people think that automatic watches do not need winding, which is surely a misconception. It all depends on the motions one makes to keep it functioning well.
Among additional features of a watch is the power reserve. It lets the movement of the watch to keep time for anywhere between 10 and 72 hours.
Today's most popular luxury watch brand, Rolex, was the first to devise and patent the rotor system, which, by the way is still widely used. The company called its invention Perpetual. This watch was part of the very famous Oyster line launched in the early 1930's.
The company's technician, Emile Borer, was the one who invented the system. however, he was not the first to create a rotor. Abraham-Louis Perrelet, was a Swiss watchmaker that developed the rotor back in 1770. His invention turned out to be very successful.
Automatic watches do not not have much in common with the quartz watches. The latter are battery- powered watch models that are not wound either by manual or automatic winding system. The battery of a quartz watch lasts for about two years, where automatic watches have a never ending source of power.
Quartz watches are much cheaper than mechanical watches due to their small number of parts and less expensive materials used in manufacturing. However, connoisseurs of mechanical watches still enjoy the prestige and elegance of fine watches that are genially handcrafted. Automatic timepieces have started to regain some share of the quartz market in recent years. There was a huge increase of 95 percent in sales between 1993 and 1995.
In order to keep a mechanical watch running properly it's movement requires lubrication. Thus timepieces can be lubricated by manually winding them periodically. It is also important to take the watch to a jeweler once in every 3 to 5 years. In the process of winding an automatic watch, it is important to wind it until you feel some resistance, this is when the watch is fully wound. Another way to keep the watch lubricated is to keep it in the winding box.
An advantage of automatic watches is that these are quite affordable. The price range for such watches is quite large.
By: watch