Best Watch Winders to Keep Your Watches Ticking

Some Facts About Watches Themselves

• The title of the most expensive watch in the world belongs to a model with a rather enigmatic name Hallucination by Graff Diamonds. The watch is worth over $55 million (over 40 million pounds) partially thanks to over 110 carats of colored diamonds set into a bracelet of platinum. What's more interesting is the fact that the 2nd most expensive watch comes from the very same company and holds a similarly grandiose name. The Fascination, by Graff Diamonds, features a price tag of 40 million American dollars (almost 30 million pounds) and is comprised of 152.96 carats of white diamonds and includes a center, 38.13-carat, pear-shaped diamond that can detach into a ring.
• The title of the world's biggest clock is somewhat more ambiguous than that of the world's most expensive one. Technically speaking, the world's "Largest Timepiece" was created by artist Jim Bowers, with an official diameter of 1.75 miles. But the aforementioned device incorporates 3 lasers and calling it a clock wouldn't necessarily be correct unless you're interested in discussing the semantics of this word. The title of the world's biggest actual clock would probably have to go to Abraj Al Bait Towers clock in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, featuring a 142-foot diameter clock built on a 1971-foot hotel tower in front of the Ka'ba.
• Although the origins of the very first wristwatch are still unknown and have been the subject of heated debates for the past decade and a half, with some claiming that it was designed and developed by Louis Cartier so that his friend, Mr. Santos-Dumont, could fly a plane without having to take his hands off the controls to check the time, and others insisting that the first wristwatch was invested by a now world-famous designer of watches Patek Phillipe in 1868, the origins of the first self-winding clock are much more clear. A man named John Harwood was the original inventor of the first self-winding watch mechanism sometime during 1923.
  

Originally a Limited Offer

The history behind watch winders isn't necessarily as long and interesting as the one behind watches themselves. The thing is, the very first watch winders haven't necessarily been designed and created with the largest commercial market in mind. These devices were mostly employed by watch repair shops for a fairly limited variety of fixing and repairing applications. The very first time these devices have been introduced to a wider range of customers happened somewhere in Europe towards the end of the 1990s. The reason for this sudden commercial success lies behind the fact that, at the time, there was a fairly high concentration of engineers and scientists in Japan with a considerable interest in automatic watches and winder production. A small company started producing watch winders for the Japanese market and, ever since then, they have been slowly getting introduced to the rest of the world.

A Decent Watch Winder Isn't as Expensive as You Might Think

While that is true that a watch winder is somewhat of a luxury and not everyone necessarily has to own one of these devices, they are actually not as costly as the majority of people probably tend to believe. Although we still wouldn't recommend purchasing the absolute cheapest option you could possibly find on the market, especially since the majority of them come with a Chinese motor that, more often than not, wouldn't be able to last very long and produce the kind of result the customer may be hoping for, any watch winder that comes equipped with a Japanese Mabuchi motors or one of the similar premier engines will be able to do the job.

Q: Is winding the watches the only thing this device is good for?

A: On the contrary, a watch winder is capable of so much more than simply winding your automatic watch. One of the biggest advantages of the watch winder isn't just that it keeps your automatic watch up to time and date but also the fact that it improves the durability of your watch. First of all, your automatic watch or watches need motion not just to be able to stay on time but also, in order to keep the oil inside, the movement of your watch has to be fluently distributed over the mechanical parts. What some people choose to believe is that watch winders rotate constantly but the truth is that most decent watch winders have programs that feature different kinds of rotation with a resting period. Since the majority of modern automatic watches feature a so-called stress protection in order to avoid putting too much pressure on the mechanical parts of the device, so do the majority of up-to-date watch winders include some type of a program that will be able to protect your watch from receiving some sort of damage.

Q: Should I purchase the kind of watch winder that appeals to me first or is there some meaning behind the design of every model?

A: Of course, since a watch winder isn't just a useful device but also a great and stylish addition to your interior, you should always consider how attractive you find it and how will it be able to fit the room you wish to place it in. But, on top of that, a watch winder isn't just some random device whose structure is a figment of the designer's imagination. First and foremost, it is a case that keeps the watch protected. Since different kinds of natural elements such as moisture are capable of disrupting the functioning of the watches by causing corrosion, A watch winder will be more than useful when it comes to protecting your watches from "natural" harm. So, before choosing the one that simply appeals to you on a personal level, you should check whether the device in question will be able to provide a sufficient amount of protection to your watch.

Q: Can I manually turn the motor in a watch winder?

A: Absolutely not. You should never even attempt to manually turn the watch winder's motor since there is a very good chance that this course of action may cause some kind of damage to the unit. If you have any issues with your watch winder and you feel like it isn't functioning properly or at all, you should avoid trying to fix the device on your own and contact a specialist.

Q: Are watch winders loud when operating?

A: It all depends on the model. But, unless you're interested in investing in a cheaper product that comes with a subpar motor, the majority of decent watch winders, especially the ones that include the Japanese Mabuchi motor or any similar alternative, tend to operate in a comparatively quiet fashion and won't be able to disturb you in your sleep.