Enquiry on Winders

[ohlins]

rapport - jw watch.....great eastern building

eilux - visio time, red army watches, sincere

orbita & underwood - cortina, hour glass and sincere

wolf - jw watch and a few others...

[ohlins]

a good entry level winder is eilux......made in HK.....can wind cw/ccw/both directions......
but cannot adjust number of turns per day.....i think the factory setting is about 850 tpd......ok lah....not excessive so wont overwind......red army watches, visio time and sincere selling......

orbita of cos nice...but expensive.......can adjust number of turns per day for higher end models....

rapport looks nice and is a UK product....but cannot adjust tpd......and i think the stock setting is more than 1000 tpd......so that's something to note....

there is this taiwan made winder...brand is A Best.....can be found here......individual settings for each head..........looks good and not expensive at all.......http://www.thewatchprince.com/watch-...t-watch-winder

at first quite ex....sales not that good......now with discount out of stock haha......but at us$135 for a 3 head winder......not bad....

of the high end winders....i think orbita is the best buy.......somewhat better than underwood and scatola (super expensive)....

and the other end will be MIC winders.....lucky u get a good sample works like gem......unlucky get a lemon...........that's why some ppl say very good yet some fail within days/weeks......

[keltzar]

hmm... i am cautious about using a cheap winder ...
may overwind the watch.

also, one shop here showed me a Wolf winder vs a Rapport... the diff. is that the band has got to be smaller to be used well on the cheaper winder, or you will end up squeezing it in which is not good...

who sells orbita here?

[triton]

before you embark on your journey to look for winders, you need to ask yourself some questions. do you believe that constant winding will cause the watch movement to be worn out faster? if you believe so, then don't get a watch winder. otherwise, you can consider getting a watch winder.

there are many different brands watch winder available in the market. you can either go to a brick and mortar shop such as THG, Sincere, Red Army Watches, Precious Time, so even smaller independent shops to get them.

what do you need to look for in a winder? first and foremost, get one which comes with a cover. this is to prevent dust from settling on your watch if u leave there for a period more than 42 hours which is normal power reserve for most automatic watches.

do you want your winder to be battery operated and/or dc power operated. for brands like eilux single winder, it can be operated by either of the choice but their triple winders can ONLY be operated by dc power.

how many winders do you need? if you got 2 watches, get 1 winder with 1 rotor is enough so that you can wind one up while you wearing another, usually i would recommend the number of ROTORS required as total number of watches -1. however, if you got like 10 watches, do you want 9 rotors? you need to ask yourself then.

watch winders usually comes with different number of rotors. some watch winders allow you to set direction only but not turns per day (TPD). some watch winders allow you to set both direction and TPD. hence it is important to note your needs.

for those who want to buy a winder that can wind 2 watches simultaneously, you need to be careful. first both the watches must be using the same direction and TPD. this is important. Otherwise, your watch movement may be damaged. furthermore you need to take note of th distance between the holder of the watch. if you got both watches @ 44mm and the gap is barely 5cm apart, you may have problem mounting the watch into the slot. another consideration is that if you only place one watch on the dual slot rotor, will it cause an imbalance and the watch fall out of place.

what brands should you look for? what is your budget? there are many brands out there, some can be purchase locally, while others can be purchased online. if you purchase overseas, do note of the warranty issues and shipping issues should you need to get your winder fix. however, there are local repairs who may charge you a higher fees for servicing. so do your homework before you make a decision to get one from overseas. if you purchase online, do consider whether the winder can be serviced locally if the set does not have a local presence.

also the brand of the watch winder should have a table to tell you which brand and model uses which direction and number of TPD. though all winders should technically have about the same TPD but the angle of the rotor will affect the number TPD available.

some watch winders url -

eilux
orbita
rapport

Article on Winder part I
Article on Winder part II