IWC Schaffhausen

Hi All-

Thinking at 5002, 5004, or 5001...all 7 day auto power reserves...I read through the FAQ and care and maitenance section, but did not see any comments referring to hand winding your auto movements... Is this an acceptable practice? Do people do this regularly, or do they always put their watches in a winder or "swirl" that our movement up? Do the 7day autos have a "clutch" that prevents one from over hand winding, or is there friction that stops the watch from winding anymore? Thanks!

Last edited: 17 April, 2011 - 10:47

I wind my 7 day movements in a relatively steady manner most weekends. Not too fast. Yes, there's a clutch but there's also a rather useful subdial which shows power reserve and indicates when the watch is fully wound. There's valid debate as to whether a 7 day movement needs to be an automatic. The new handwound 8 day Portofino model answers that question.

Cheers,
Ralph

Last edited: 17 May, 2013 - 09:58

If it's automatic, it shouldn't be wounded on a routinary basis, reversers on an automatic caliber are always weaker than in a hw movement. Overwinding is never an issue, due to the clutch previously mentioned.

I think the power reserve is equally useful both, in a hw rather than in an automatic watch.

Regards,

Roberto

Last edited: 12 June, 2013 - 11:03

pdnb Wrote:...referring to hand winding your auto movements... Is this an acceptable practice? Do people do this regularly, or do they always put their watches in a winder or "swirl" that our movement up?

Interesting topic. My opinion is watches have been wound by hand for centuries - and contemporary, automatic movements are especially robust. By "Swirling" an automatic watch, I presume you mean quickly making a gyrating movement to spin the rotor to wind the watch. My guess is that this would put even more stress on the watch than manually winding it.

If you should find your Cal. 500X 7-Day watch not running, and indicating no pwer reserve on the display - just a fraction of a turn of the crown will give it a few hours of power reserve - and the watch will begin running immediately. We forget sometimes that the Cal. 500X actually has a huge barrel and 8-days of power - but IWC designers were not satisfied with the last 12-20 hours of amplitude curve to adequately power the movement - so they mechanically programmed the watch to STOP automatically when the power reserve got down to ~24 hours of reserve - and adjusted the power reserve scale. This means, with the power reserve reading ZERO, a single, small turn of the crown will start the watch - you can put it on your wrist, and let your body's kinetic energy do the rest of the winding for the day...

IWCs Cal. 5000x and 80xxx, movements have the added benefit of the innovative, and enhanced Pellaton Automatic Winding system which is patented by IWC. It will automatically wind the watch as the rotor spins in EITHER direction. Most other automatics only wind in one direction. On other watches, in most cases, when you see/feel the rotor spin - it's not actually winding the power reserve.

Regards,

Ardoise

Last edited: 1 January, 2012 - 17:55

Ardoise Wrote:
By "Swirling" an automatic watch, I presume you mean quickly making a gyrating movement to spin the rotor to wind the watch. My guess is that this would put even more stress on the watch than manually winding it.

This is a different kind of stress though, not related to mechanical strain of some parts, a watch has different devices to sustain shocks and to my humble opinion the risk to damage the watch is higher wounding the spring barrel by the crown than simply moving the wrist fast or suddendly while wearing it.

Regards,

Roberto

Last edited: 12 June, 2013 - 11:03

I wind my watches all the time. If the power reserve indicator is low I will get it back up to the top. I can't worry about whether the winding mechanism is not robust. Generally, any watch worn a lot is going to need service after about 5 or 6 years anyway. So its easy enough to check things out then.
Repairs on my watches are usually related to indicators malfunctioning. I have never had a winding mechanism problem.

Last edited: 18 June, 2013 - 19:31

flyrobyfly36 Wrote:..my humble opinion the risk to damage the watch is higher wounding the spring barrel by the crown than simply moving the wrist fast or suddendly while wearing it.

I think we agree with each other to an extent. With the original topic/post, I was envisioning someone "swirling" their watch non-stop for a few hours in order to build up power reserve - this is not ideal when a few twists of the crown will suffice. I thought the original post was implying that it would be more practical to "swirl" the watch rather than hand-wind it. Swirling for a long duration would indeed place more stress the watch overall - and is not practical.

I find that with any 500X, there is no need to hand-wind the power reserve to 100% (full 7 days) - just a few twists does it - gets the watch running instantly - and after a few hour wearing it - the power reserve is already near a full 7-days - letting the automatic winding system do it's thing.

I think this aligns completely in agreement to your last post, Roberto.

Regards,

Ardoise

Last edited: 1 January, 2012 - 17:55

My view is slightly different, but not much.

An automatic should start out at full wind --in theory, it will keep better time (due to less isochronism error). I view the automatic winding mechanism as better used to keep a watch fully wound.

There is nothing wrong with manually winding an automatic watch. They are designed to be manually wound. They should not be manually wound incessantly (like every few hours or daily) since at some point there will be some additional wear. But even then the watch will not "break" without huge over-abuse, and parts like these are easy and inexpensively replaced during routine overhauls.

Regards, Michael
mfriedberg@iwcforum.com

Last edited: 5 April, 2012 - 19:53

Ardoise Wrote in reply to:

flyrobyfly36 Wrote:..my humble opinion the risk to damage the watch is higher wounding the spring barrel by the crown than simply moving the wrist fast or suddendly while wearing it.

I think we agree with each other to an extent. With the original topic/post, I was envisioning someone "swirling" their watch non-stop for a few hours in order to build up power reserve - this is not ideal when a few twists of the crown will suffice. I thought the original post was implying that it would be more practical to "swirl" the watch rather than hand-wind it. Swirling for a long duration would indeed place more stress the watch overall - and is not practical.

I find that with any 500X, there is no need to hand-wind the power reserve to 100% (full 7 days) - just a few twists does it - gets the watch running instantly - and after a few hour wearing it - the power reserve is already near a full 7-days - letting the automatic winding system do it's thing.

I think this aligns completely in agreement to your last post, Roberto.

Totally agree :)

Regards,

Roberto

Last edited: 12 June, 2013 - 11:03