Manual Winding Question

[Lmbeauleap]

My question is, what does the manual wind do to the accuracy? It seems I'll gain 5-6 seconds the day I wind it and then it settles into gaining or losing 1 second depending on what position I rest it at night. I'm sure it probably varies a bit for each watch but just wondering what "normally" happens after an automatic watch is wound fully. Will it speed up a tad? I always thought the opposite I guess.

I know some of you long time owners roll your eyes at this stuff but I'm just having fun with my GMT Master II it so take it as that. I'm a new owner and I'm not obsessing, just learning how it works and trying different things.

I have been resting it in different positions at night for a week at a time to see how that affects the accuracy (face up, crown up, crown down, etc). Every Monday a manually wind it 40 turns and then try the new position for a week.

I set it to time.gov on March 22nd and haven't touched that setting since. Today it was only +4 and I'm in my third week!

Thanks in advance for your advice.

[2th Dr]

I laugh, because I've wondered the same thing.

[kilyung]

Probably not winding it enough so low amplitude (less torque on the balance) and thus faster rate.

[padi56]

Originally Posted by Lmbeauleap

My question is, what does the manual wind do to the accuracy? It seems I'll gain 5-6 seconds the day I wind it and then it settles into gaining or losing 1 second depending on what position I rest it at night. I'm sure it probably varies a bit for each watch but just wondering what "normally" happens after an automatic watch is wound fully. Will it speed up a tad? I always thought the opposite I guess.

I know some of you long time owners roll your eyes at this stuff but I'm just having fun with my GMT Master II it so take it as that. I'm a new owner and I'm not obsessing, just learning how it works and trying different things.

I have been resting it in different positions at night for a week at a time to see how that affects the accuracy (face up, crown up, crown down, etc). Every Monday a manually wind it 40 turns and then try the new position for a week.

I set it to time.gov on March 22nd and haven't touched that setting since. Today it was only +4 and I'm in my third week!

Thanks in advance for your advice.

My advice just wear your watch and enjoy it and try not to be too anal about a few seconds either way.If you have to, just check it once a week I am sure your watch will still be well less than a minute either way, no matter how you rest your watch.But to give your watch a full manual wind say once of twice a week is fine even if worn daily.

[le_baroudeur]

I have noticed the same thing: -1.5 all the time, dead on if i wind it once a day and let it flat dial upwards. But in my case I think that the position is the key, not the winding method. Wear it in good health! (i.e. Vegan way ;)

[Lmbeauleap]

Originally Posted by padi56

My advice just wear your watch and enjoy it and try not to be too anal about a few seconds either way.If you have to, just check it once a week I am sure your watch will still be well less than a minute either way, no matter how you rest your watch.But to give your watch a full manual wind say once of twice a week is fine even if worn daily.

I hear you. I'm not being anal about it though, just getting a feel for how it works these first few weeks and that is part of the enjoyment for me. If I wanted no complication I would have stayed with quartz. I like the manual nature of it to be honest. Something to futz with I guess.

After I get a feel for how my watch is working on my wrist I don't see myself checking it very often. Looks like if I set it crown up a couple times a week it will be spot on. I could just let it gradually get faster but I take it off each night anyway. Why not just plop it down a different way and have it be perfect?

Also I wanted to know for sure exactly how it is working at the beginning so that I know if something starts going wrong later.

[dddrees]

I personally don't check these things that closely. But then again I tend to wear a different one daily anyway.


However it's my understanding that a watch becomes faster as the power supply gets lower or the mainspring unwinds more. So the watch tends to run more efficently or better when the power supply is kept topped off or the mainspring is kept wound. Since most people don't do enough activity to keep this topped off it is best to manually wind it about once a week or every other week.

So depending on how low the power reserve actually gets, the watch may actually be a bit slower after you just wind it.