Watch Winders
Modern watch innovation has not completely replaced the traditional watch winder.
For centuries, watch wearers had to wind their watch to retain the accuracy of their timepiece. This manual mechanical movement, facilitated by twisting the winding crown, winds the mainspring up which then releases its energy to power the watch. With the advent of the battery powered watch and self-winding watches, one might suppose that the manual winding of watches would have gone the way of the Dodo! Then why are some high-end watch models still using this old principle? There are many reasons, but the first and foremost is that the user doesn't have to worry about replacing batteries or the electromechanical components.The Omega Speedmaster was the only watch that originally met NASA's standards and went to the moon with all Apollo Astronauts. This watch still to this day uses a manual winding mechanism. Besides the manual winding watch there are other types of mechanisms to power a battery. The Swiss invented the "perpetual" watch, or self-winding watch in 1770, the forerunner of the modern self winding watch.
Kinetic
The Kinetic watch winder has a quartz crystal that doesn't use a battery. Movement of your wrist charges a capacitor which powers the crystal. Once the capacitor is fully charged, enough electricity is stored for 1-2 weeks of use.Solar Powered
A Technologically advanced watch powered by the sun or any other light source that never requires a battery. The batteries are charged by solar panels on the watch dial.Self-Winding
The self-winding watch is wound by the wearer's arm when moved. When the watch is moved, a rotor turns and winds the mainspring. This allows for about a 36 hour reserve and therefore the watch needs to worn every few days or hand wound. "The Washington Winder" is a device that keeps your watch wound by a single perpetual motion mechanism when your watch is not being worn.Battery-less Quartz
This utilizes a quartz crystal powered by a small electric generator operated by a rotor. The generated electricity is stored in a capacitor or rechargeable battery. Like an automatic watch, these must be worn regularly to keep up their electrical reserve.Mechanical Movement
A movement based on a mainspring which when wound slowly unwinds the spring in an even motion to provide accurate timekeeping. As opposed to a manual mechanical watch that needs to be wound on a regular basis, an automatic mechanical watch requires no winding as the rotor winds the mainspring when the watch is moved.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |