Dumb Questions About Automatics

[In-Cog-Neeto]

Originally Posted by Tavira Lancer

Thanks for that post, learnt something new other than wait lists and how do we get on wait lists, and do wait lists exist?

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Have you ever found an answer to these unfathomable modern day mysteries?

[Tavira Lancer]

Yes, its 42 apparently

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[dan993]

Really interesting for me, thanks members

[In-Cog-Neeto]

Originally Posted by Tavira Lancer

Yes, its 42 apparently

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I should have known!

Makes perfect sense now

[Phooi]

So does the 40 winds apply to the newer movements such as the one in the Sky Dweller?

Also, should this be a cross post into the Rolex Watch Tech forum? It would be nice to have a place for newbies like myself to go and learn about our watches.

[Rebel]

Great question and read.

[KBM]

Good info, would never have guessed the 1300 turns of the rotor bit. Thanks!

[GONZO2LR]

thank you for the great information!

i always learn something new here....

[Catatafish]

And people would give me crap about not wanting a single direction winding movement. Thanks for this!

[Driftwood]

I love these posts very informative! At the end of the month, I fully wind the watch I’m wearing and don’t use a winder. When I rotate to another I set & wind the watch and actually like handing them. To me its part of the experience owning a mechanical time piece .


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[Amochosto]

Originally Posted by padi56

In normal wearing its doubtful that many would wind there watches to peak full mainspring power.As most today are not very active so before wearing a stopped watch always manually wind first.Same for these so called programmed winding machines, most will only put back to whatever power-reserve they had to start with.So if you must use one of these machines, always manual wind before putting on machine winder,yes a machine will keep them ticking but thats about all they do.When and if the mainspring gets fully wound up its just slips in the spring-barrel so you cannot over-wind.

For what it’s worth I tested the theory that Rolex watches would not be fully wound on the wrist using my 16570 Explorer II with a recently serviced 3185 movement. It had totally wound down and had been sitting several weeks before I put it on. I did not wind it when I put it on. I wore it for a week (including at night, I sleep with it on).

Then after a week of wearing I put it at my bedside and wrote down the time I stopped wearing it, then checked how long it would run. It ran 47 hours and 43 minutes. I’m not an inactive guy, but I’m certainly not action man, I went to my desk job 5 of those days I worked out twice, I walked here and there, I did not bike or hike or any super long activities.

I conclude that you can fully wind a Rolex from dead stop to full power reserve just by wearing on your wrist. YMMV

[Feelix]

Best question and response I’ve seen in this board in 6 months. Thanks to all.

[10klakes]

Great info here- thanks TRF.

[eijiboy]

i wonder if the new 3235 movement will wind faster when moving the rotor and not the crown compare to 3135.

[junamuan]

Originally Posted by Tools

Rolex famous purple gears that are visible are "reversing" wheels, in that whichever way the auto-weight turns, the reverse wheels move into position to wind your watch - so, both directions.

The auto-wind is geared dramatically different from the crown. The crown will fully wind, to a 48 hr power reserve, most Rolex movements with 40 complete turns.

The auto-wind mechanism needs 650 complete turns just to keep your watch at the same amount of wind in 24 hours, so it would need ~1,300 "turns" to fully wind your watch from a dead stop.

Does that mean 1300 wrist swings?

[Tools]

Originally Posted by junamuan

Does that mean 1300 wrist swings?

Depends on how good a wrist swinger you are.

1,300 full rotations of the counterweight..... if you are a wimpy swinger it might not rotate fully; if you are more energetic, it may spin around twice.

[CashGap]

Originally Posted by Brew

Finally! Thank you for this info. I've been wondering how much I have to swim in order to fully wind my watch. Since I do about 8 strokes/turns per lap, I would need to do about 163 laps, or 2.3 miles.

.... I will settle for keeping status quo instead.

I would not be surprised if one swimming stroke would generate MANY rotations of the rotor.

[Andad]

Originally Posted by Tools

Depends on how good a wrist swinger you are.

1,300 full rotations of the counterweight..... if you are a wimpy swinger it might not rotate fully; if you are more energetic, it may spin around twice.

Ummm...we don’t call them wrist swingers in Oz Larry.

[Andad]

Originally Posted by SearChart

Even though the Rolex automatic modules are very efficient, they are designed to keep a watch wound up, not to wind it up from a dead stop.

40turns of the crown, set the time and let the automatic module keep it wound up as long as you wear it

There are no such things as dumb question Bas only .... .........

I have very seldom fully would an automatic watch.

I just usually give it a couple of turns to start it and wear it.

Why wind an automatic watch?

[Brew]

Originally Posted by CashGap

I would not be surprised if one swimming stroke would generate MANY rotations of the rotor.

Yes, I have assumed one rotation of the rotor per rotation of my arm. Inertia is a drag!

[brandrea]

Originally Posted by Chiboy

TRF: the silent killer

[padi56]

Originally Posted by eijiboy

i wonder if the new 3235 movement will wind faster when moving the rotor and not the crown compare to 3135.

To get the extra power reserve they made the spring-barrel walls much thinner than the cal 3135 to accommodate the longer mainspring.To fully manually wind watches with say power-reserve 70 plus hours,they would need around 60 full crown turns clockwise only.Like all the Rolex automatic movements you cannot over-wind, as when mainspring is fully wound it just slips in the spring-barrel.And its wrist movement that winds the watch so would expect both would wind around the same via the winding pendulum.

[othertbone]

Originally Posted by Tools

Rolex famous purple gears that are visible are "reversing" wheels, in that whichever way the auto-weight turns, the reverse wheels move into position to wind your watch - so, both directions.

The auto-wind is geared dramatically different from the crown. The crown will fully wind, to a 48 hr power reserve, most Rolex movements with 40 complete turns.

The auto-wind mechanism needs 650 complete turns just to keep your watch at the same amount of wind in 24 hours, so it would need ~1,300 "turns" to fully wind your watch from a dead stop.

Wow good answer, thanks!

[lhawli]

These are the types of question I like seeing and reading about when visiting the forums. Thanks for asking.

Although I knew a full wind took ~40-50 turns of the crown and when on a watch winder it took 650 TBD bi-directional, I never really grasped the correlation between the 2 before reading this thread. Thanks again.

[WaxedElvis]

Great thread......real info...thanks!

[privv]

Originally Posted by padi56

In normal wearing its doubtful that many would wind there watches to peak full mainspring power.As most today are not very active so before wearing a stopped watch always manually wind first.Same for these so called programmed winding machines, most will only put back to whatever power-reserve they had to start with.So if you must use one of these machines, always manual wind before putting on machine winder,yes a machine will keep them ticking but thats about all they do.When and if the mainspring gets fully wound up its just slips in the spring-barrel so you cannot over-wind.

thanks for that

[Calatrava r]

Originally Posted by Tools

Rolex famous purple gears that are visible are "reversing" wheels, in that whichever way the auto-weight turns, the reverse wheels move into position to wind your watch - so, both directions.

The auto-wind is geared dramatically different from the crown. The crown will fully wind, to a 48 hr power reserve, most Rolex movements with 40 complete turns.

The auto-wind mechanism needs 650 complete turns just to keep your watch at the same amount of wind in 24 hours, so it would need ~1,300 "turns" to fully wind your watch from a dead stop.

Another question, why do some manufacturers still use one directional winding? Is there any advantage to it?

[Tools]

Originally Posted by Calatrava r

Another question, why do some manufacturers still use one directional winding? Is there any advantage to it?

Probably to keep the size down, as the reverser wheels and switching module take up more room in the case. It's also a bit more complex.

In the old days, when a reverser module broke, some watchmakers simply took it out and converted the watch to a manual wind.

[Phil t 32]

Originally Posted by directioneng

There are no such things as dumb question Bas only .... .........

I have very seldom fully would an automatic watch.

I just usually give it a couple of turns to start it and wear it.

Why wind an automatic watch?

You’ll end up with a fat hand in middle age, nothing so sure


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[Chiboy]

I started this thread a while ago, and was recently hunting for it. Finally found it (under stats, you can find threads you started) and thought others might be interested. So I'm bumping a two year old thread....