This is an interesting subject. It is also one that has caused watchmakers many problems over the years. People don't seem to understand that some outside force or influence needs to be present in order for the automatic winding mechanism to work. Something has to cause the weight to rotate around the arbor.
Many people are very inactive. They don't move that much during the day while they are wearing their watches. They may be older and retired and simply not as active as they once were. These people need to be reminded that they might need to hand wind their watches to augment the winding that occurs with the automatic mechanism.
We have had customers in the past, who after receiving their watches, have called us and told us that their watches have stopped. In every case, the customer was not wearing their watches enough during the day to keep them running overnight. When their wearing habits were discovered, the problem with inactive wearing patterns could be corrected by additional hand winding.
If you wear your watch for only 8 hours during the day, then set it down for 16 hours during the evening and overnight, you can readily see that for an inactive person, 8 hours of wearing won't be enough. The very active person can wear the watch for 8 hours, set it down for 16 hours, and the watch will still be running the following morning.
The only exception to this would be the rare breaking of a new mainspring. This is rare, but in fact does happen. It is the one part in a watch that the watchmaker has no control over. When this has been determined to be the case, they are replaced free-of-charge by any reputable watchmaker.
As the owner of an automatic watch, it is your responsibility to determine your wearing habits and adjust for them. If need be, hand wind your watch, and rest assured that nothing is wrong with your watch.
We hope this information was useful to you. If you need help understanding your automatic watch, please feel free to contact us.
Many people are very inactive. They don't move that much during the day while they are wearing their watches. They may be older and retired and simply not as active as they once were. These people need to be reminded that they might need to hand wind their watches to augment the winding that occurs with the automatic mechanism.
We have had customers in the past, who after receiving their watches, have called us and told us that their watches have stopped. In every case, the customer was not wearing their watches enough during the day to keep them running overnight. When their wearing habits were discovered, the problem with inactive wearing patterns could be corrected by additional hand winding.
If you wear your watch for only 8 hours during the day, then set it down for 16 hours during the evening and overnight, you can readily see that for an inactive person, 8 hours of wearing won't be enough. The very active person can wear the watch for 8 hours, set it down for 16 hours, and the watch will still be running the following morning.
The only exception to this would be the rare breaking of a new mainspring. This is rare, but in fact does happen. It is the one part in a watch that the watchmaker has no control over. When this has been determined to be the case, they are replaced free-of-charge by any reputable watchmaker.
As the owner of an automatic watch, it is your responsibility to determine your wearing habits and adjust for them. If need be, hand wind your watch, and rest assured that nothing is wrong with your watch.
We hope this information was useful to you. If you need help understanding your automatic watch, please feel free to contact us.
