Rolex Precision manual opinion needed

[tquieng]

Looking to get a vintage precision but is manual wind--is it a pain to wind it? and does it damage the stem eventually? since you have to unscrew it everyday and wind it.

[Jackxv]

No , it is designed and engineered to perform that.

Why not on the look out for a SS date or datejust, they only cost a couple of more bucks, more dial choice, automatic, chronometer and when you go to a 5 digit model you even have a modern movement.

Jack

[padi56]

Originally Posted by tquieng

Looking to get a vintage precision but is manual wind--is it a pain to wind it? and does it damage the stem eventually? since you have to unscrew it everyday and wind it.

Well a good choice a great bullet proof movement myself used to own two.One from late 1960s other from early 1970s,they were wound almost daily for decades.Yes they had just a couple of tube changes,tubes are cheap, but both got original crowns.My sons wear them now and yes they are still getting wound almost daily and expect them to go on for a decade's yet.Now things like tubes crowns etc are all normal serviceable items ,and I like manual winds far less to go wrong than automatics,and as long as they are serviced will last 50 plus years.


A hand-wound movement "lives" because you actively want it to run . you sort of breathe life into it, and you have to do it on purpose. I think that's an entirely different attitude toward a watch than merely picking it up and find it working. And knowing that it will continue to do so without additional intervention by yourself.And IMHO makes you just part of the soul of the watch,and I like having to wind it each day,to keep its heart beating.
When I pick up one of my hand-winds and wind it, the whole process, the act of winding, just seems to have a sense of history and tradition to it. This makes hand-winds special to me. I can imagine my grandfather, and his father, and his father's father performing the same daily ritual. It's a connection to the past horology speaking.

Now a automatic movement runs just because of gravity and the fact that you are not dead and still, and are moving alive and kicking to speak.Or as long as the electric winder doesn't stop or burn out. In that sense now especially on a winder, I find automatic movements sometimes as soul-less as quartz, when compared to a true hand-wound movement. One might argue that an automatic movement on a winder is not so much alive as permanently undergoing gentle resuscitation.I for one deplore the demise of the hand-wound movements.