Hi

Ok so my original question was (is?) how much should I wind my 2011 FLE?
My first manual wind watch since my Hopalong Cassidy watch over 45 years ago!! I dont want to damage by over winding.

Now my second question, I wanted to post this on 2011 FLE Forum but unable to, got message 'You do not have the required permissions to read topics within this forum.'

Well I bought the watch, what more do I need to do? Looked in FAQ but could not find any help.

About 40 turns per day is enough. Modern watches can not be overwound as once they are fully wound they just let it slip.

The FLE areas are for the design and selling of the FLEs. There is no option to post a new topic there as that is teh admins role. Putting it in General Discussion is the best area.

ianblyth wrote:About 40 turns per day is enough. Modern watches can not be overwound as once they are fully wound they just let it slip.

The FLE areas are for the design and selling of the FLEs. There is no option to post a new topic there as that is teh admins role. Putting it in General Discussion is the best area.

Thanks for reply

Pleased to hear I can't damage through stupidity.

OK understand about FLE area now, thought I had done something wrong , no posts on FLE and excluded from buy and sell in one day and on my birthday of all days

Surely most people just wind a manual-wind watch until it's 'full' i.e. very firm resistance to any further winding, implying that the mainspring is coiled up tightly? Nobody counts 'turns' (do they?), and how many 'turns' you get for a typical run between thumb and forefinger can vary a lot. If you just keep winding some constant amount, then either your bound to be underdoing it (so watch eventually stops), or overdoing it (so it eventually becomes 'full'). I don't know a manual wind that 'slips' when full - I thought that was just automatics? So just wind it until it's 'full' - it's really obvious when - and you won't be doing any harm at all. I don't believe there's any such thing as 'over-winding'.

Just a quick note - it's only automatic watches that have slip mechanisms on the springs. Manual wind watches can still be damaged by over winding. As pointed out by someone else you will feel resistance as a manual watch spring reaches full tightness. I have a manal wind Panerai and many times I thought I'd over done the winding to find it was fine. I do find that cheapo manual watches overwind very easily probably due to the cheap springs and components.

You can feel the tightness increase as you wind it. Fully wound mine goes for about nine hours

Yoda wrote:You can feel the tightness increase as you wind it. Fully wound mine goes for about nine hours

9 hours!

A typo perhaps?

Or Master Yoda just wind really slow, sorry, can't help

I'm wearing it in gently. Nine '9' hours with a wind. Shall I send it back?

Just keep winding it until you hit a wall - you will feel resistance build up until the barrel is full and you cant wind it any further - you won't be able to push through that wall without considerable effort. This will give you full charge and about 46 hours of constant wear.

This is a good reason for manual wind watches to have a power reserve indicator, (to me the power reserve is wasted on an automatic after wearing the watch for a few hours it would always be fully wound). On a manual wound watch keeping it between 30 to 70% on the power reserve indicator would maintain it at it's peak mechanical efficiency. I remember reading somewhere that this was recommended practice for Station Masters in the Golden Age of Steam.

alphajet wrote:This is a good reason for manual wind watches to have a power reserve indicator, (to me the power reserve is wasted on an automatic after wearing the watch for a few hours it would always be fully wound). On a manual wound watch keeping it between 30 to 70% on the power reserve indicator would maintain it at it's peak mechanical efficiency. I remember reading somewhere that this was recommended practice for Station Masters in the Golden Age of Steam.

Yes, I couldn't put it more clearly. Also, they kept it between 30 to 70% because it ensured the greatest accuracy and trains have to be on-time. For that reason specifically, did the power reserve become developed.

sadgit wrote:

ianblyth wrote:About 40 turns per day is enough. Modern watches can not be overwound as once they are fully wound they just let it slip.

The FLE areas are for the design and selling of the FLEs. There is no option to post a new topic there as that is teh admins role. Putting it in General Discussion is the best area.

Thanks for reply

Pleased to hear I can't damage through stupidity.

OK understand about FLE area now, thought I had done something wrong , no posts on FLE and excluded from buy and sell in one day and on my birthday of all days

Belated happy returns, it was my birthday on the first too, hence my purchase of my first CW, and joining the forum! Quality birthday, St David's Day!

Cheers,

David

Is this why folks buy auto winder to avoid over winding or do they serve other purpose?

badmedia wrote:Is this why folks buy auto winder to avoid over winding or do they serve other purpose?

I always assumed that people bought autowinders and such so that they didn't have to keep reconfiguring their watches each time they wished to use them... could be wrong though.