HOW SELF-WINDING WATCHES WORK

Far more common today are full-rotor systems, the oscillating weight turning 360°. These were first developed by Rolex for the pioneering Oyster Perpetual in the early 1930s. While Harwood’s ‘bumper’ movements possessed a power reserve of just 12 hours, Rolex’s innovation managed to triple that figure. (Consumers clearly favoured the convenience of a lengthier charge — Hardwood went out of business during the Great Depression, whereas Rolex, as you may well be aware, continues to thrive today.) The vast majority of contemporary automatic watches feature a full-rotor automatic movement with bidirectional winding, transferring power to the mainspring whether the rotor turns clockwise or anticlockwise. Occasionally — often in haute-horological creations — you’ll encounter micro-rotors, which help keep movement girth down by fitting snugly onto the baseplate. In another step to create thinner automatic movements, a decade ago Carl F Bucherer invented a peripherally-mounted ring-shaped system encircling the movement, which has been used by manufactures including Breguet and Bvlgari to create self-winding watches of exceptional svelteness.

Of course, you need to keep your automatic watch wound for it to continue displaying correct time. That’s easily done if you only wear one watch, but if you have a collection you cycle through, chances are individual pieces will run out of power regularly — necessitating the fiddly task of resetting the time (and perhaps also day, date, moon phase, et cetera) whenever you want to return that piece to your wrist. The ideal solution is to store your watches in a winder when they’re not worn. This not only keeps them handsomely housed and accurate, but helps maintain the movement in optimum condition. Self-winding movements became omnipresent in mechanical watchmaking in large part thanks to the convenience they provide. Using a winder ensures your automatic watch delivers on that time-saving promise.