How not to wind a Mechanical Watch

Deep Thought

Am on email notifications for a dealer and received this email

"He arrived last Thursday, well dressed, wearing a $12,800 Rolex.
"I would like to buy a Panerai Destro with 56 hours power reserve".
Obviously money was not an issue and he appeared to be
reasonably sure about his choice.

I sensed that something was unusual even before the transaction was completed:
while I was doing my best to explain how to wind the watch and set the time
we was taking photos of the watch with his mobile device, uploading them on
what appeared to be a social networking website, counting the number of "likes".

Yesterday morning, precisely at 8:29 I received a distressed email from the new Panerai owner:
the watch was dead. Attached, was a 27 seconds video clip which
should have helped me pinpoint the problem and provide an instant solution.

The video was both graphic and deeply disturbing."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVSlU4jxe44

hi5

The amount of people who shake their automatic watches to get them started is shocking, so I suppose it only follows a few are going to try it with manuals as well.

Wibbs

Jesus.

MiCr0

at least he didn't try to jumpstart it

Menas

Can we mark this thread as NSFW? The lads in the office here are in shock...a bit like that watch.

Lex Luthor

I could swear that on my Seiko 5 manual it says to rock it to get it started, must check later

hi5

Lex Luthor wrote: »

I could swear that on my Seiko 5 manual it says to rock it to get it started, must check later

There was some Seiko automatics with no manual wind, also Oriosa or Orient.

fishguy

You can buy an expensive watch for money but you can't buy brain to use it....

Amalgam

hi5 wrote: »

There was some Seiko automatics with no manual wind, also Oriosa or Orient.

The basic Seiko 5's ('k2, 'J1 etc..) can't be hand wound, as far as I can recall.

fret_wimp2

Loads of watches dont have winding functionality and need to be gently "shook" to get going. examples are original monsters , all SKX diver line, Samurai's, BFS and a bunch of others (anything with the 7S26 movement), and some Miyotas to name but a few.

Im not saying you shake it aggressively like your getting the last bit of ketchup out of the bottom of the bottle, gentle rocking to simulate wrist movement for a minute or so, then set the time and after that the movement of you wrist throughout the day should keep it going.

nothing wrong with gently shaking a watch to get it going.

That said, what this guy is doing is just stupid. aggressively shaking a hand wind watch?? wont accomplish anything. It shouldnt damage it though, mechanical watches are tougher than people know and dont need to be mothered.

fishguy

You might need to shake a simple hand wind mechanical watch sometimes. If you have not winded it up for a few days (weeks maybe) and you fully wind it it might not start. A quick shake from the wrist and there you go the balance is beating again. Sometimes the balance can get set a bit if the watch was not wound for a long time. I have this with AS and Unitas movements often.