Winding the mechanical clockwork (also commonly known as the mechanical movement) requires a good level of care and consistency. As a result of the attention paid to the manual mechanical watch during its design process, a lot of caution should be applied to the winding process. It’s never enough to just turn the crown; you must understand how to wind mechanical clockwork the right way and with the right amount of pressure.
Guidelines involved in Winding the Mechanical Clockwork
The typical clockwork encompasses the inner mechanism in a mechanical watch which allows it to perform its timekeeping functions correctly. Several tiny parts and gears come together to form the clockwork motor which is the power source for the watch.
When you have a good grasp of how the mechanical watch stops and starts, you’ll know how to enjoy your watch for many years on end. Some folks sometimes complain that their mechanical watch won’t wind. But in the real sense, the issue is they don’t know how to set a mechanical watch.
Hence, take note of the following steps before you wind your mechanical clockwork. Among other things, the clockwork combines the crown, a spiral spring (mainspring), the gears, and the watch hands.
Steps Involved in Winding Your Mechanical Movement
When you have confirmed that what you have is a mechanical watch, check the movement for the mainspring and gears. With these two important parts, you can confidently wind the crown and anticipate that the watch hands would move on the dial face of the watch. Proper winding results in the creation of energy which the mainspring stores and soon distributes to the clockwork gears.
- Remove the mechanical watch from the wrist before winding. Some folks often make the mistake of winding the mechanical clockwork with the watch on their wrist. The error in this so-called convenience is that the position of the watch may damage the crown and external parts of the watch like the lugs. Also, the watch strap may suffer wear after some time.
- Unscrew the crown of your watch with your right thumb and index finger.
- Wind it in a clockwise direction until you feel some sort of resistance. The way the clockwork works, a pulley with gear teeth wraps the metal string/mainspring which is also restrained by a ratchet. When you have wound the crown many times, you can be sure that the mainspring should hit its limit and arrive at the point of resistance.
- If you own a self-winding watch, go active enough for your wrist movement to wind the watch till it gets to its limit.
- Check that the day/date time is correct; otherwise, set them.
- Replace the crown in its zero winding position. Screwing down entails adding sufficient pressure to drive the crown back into its position.
- The energy gotten from this winding will last for 48 hours (at most); so prepare to wind again before the watch stops.
One More Word
Before you wind a mechanical clockwork, find out first if it requires self-winding or manual winding. Inasmuch as both watches use the mechanical movement, their winding processes vary a little.
Above all, never overwind or add too much pressure to both the crown and the mainspring. If you have other questions about your mechanical watch, follow us on official website. We’ll be glad to help.