Handcranking - all at once or bit by bit?

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scooter
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Re: Handcranking - all at once or bit by bit?

Post by scooter »

You're right of course.

I was being a little harsh there.

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Re: Handcranking - all at once or bit by bit?

Post by Kip »

A hand wind is just that. No harm winding it fully and letting it run down. That is what it was designed for.

Wind every day as Paul suggests and don't think about it again.
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Re: Handcranking - all at once or bit by bit?

Post by Aifo »

I also wind it fully up to resistance, however, for vintage pieces I tend to wind slower than say the C9 FLE.
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Re: Handcranking - all at once or bit by bit?

Post by Amor Vincit Omnia »

That is good advice for any hand winder. Gently but completely, once per day. I tend to wear my vintage watches for a day or perhaps two, so I wind and set them the night before, wind and check in the morning and then they are good to go. There really is no point in reinventing the wheel.
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Re: Handcranking - all at once or bit by bit?

Post by jmarchitect »

I have two types of hand winder. Those with an ETA 6897 or 6898 movement inside and those with an old Russian Molnija 3601 movement inside. The ETA versions are wound fully, until there is a definite resistance and are then allowed to run down. If I wear them again the next day, I wind them fully again, although the number of winds is a lot less than used the day before. My Molnija powered pieces are still wound when I put them on but I count the number of winds as they have no mechanisms to prevent over-winding, as can be found in the ETA pieces. I give them 50 full winds, then 40 the next day if I wear them for a couple of days. Following this approach has caused no problems for me and provides a delightful 30 seconds or so each morning as I interact with my mechanical marvels.