WatchWinder

Scatola del Tempo makes higher-end watch winders, which are an important part of owning multiple mechanical watches. Celebrities often get gifted lots of luxury watches, but having enough of them can make it a pain to ensure they are all wound. I doubt watch companies are including winders with the watches. So it is nice to see that Scatola del Tempo is thinking of the "big people" and helping out their needs too. Popular actor Clive Owen was just gifted a leather line watch winder suitable for (looks like 8) several watches. The watch winder company makes a whole line of luxury watch winders.

They report that Mr. Owen was delighted to received the watch winder being a huge watch lover himself. I see that he is wearing (most likely) a Jaeger LeCoultre chronograph watch. I am having a hard time identifying the model though. The timepiece is certainly mechanical, and most likely an automatic, so the winder will suit him well, especially with this timepiece. Other recent recipients of Scatola del Tempo watch winders include Steven Spielberg.

Ariel Adams publishes the luxury watch review site aBlogtoRead.com.

Orbita, the North Carolina based maker of watch winders, has recently adapted their popular Avanti 12 watch winder line to the new Orbita Avanti 8. It is a well-made wood cabinet (available in two different types of wood - Macassar and Madrona Burl) that comes in either a pedestal or wall mounted unit. Glass doors open to reveal eight programmable watch winder units. Orbita has long since been a creator of enthusiast-oriented watch winder units that make living with a collection of mechanical watches so much more convenient.

The Avanti 8 removed the bottom third row of watch winder from the cabinet. The multi-purpose space can be used to store additional watch items or accessories. I also understand that Orbita has some modules that can fit in this space. Accordingly, the Avanti 8 is less expensive than the Avanti 12. The unit is constructed mostly from wood, carbon fiber, glass, steel, brass, chrome, or gold plated steel hinges. The Avanti units are powered via an AC/DC adapter and is 20 inches tall, by 23 inches wide, and 9 inches deep (weighs in at 42lbs). Although it is priced at about $10,000, it is considered mid-range in the world of quality watch winders from a cost perspective.

Ariel Adams publishes the luxury watch review site aBlogtoRead.com.

A lot of people ask me if there are devices that will help them keep their manually-wound (hand wound via the crown) mechanical watches wound, so that they don't have to wind them each day or so. Automatic mechanical watches have all sorts of winders that mimic the oscillation needed for the watches to be wound - that would occur as though you were wearing them. Automatic watch movement winders are easy to find, and devices that wind manually wound watches are more rare, and of course expensive.

Manually wound watch winders all pretty much look the same. The watch is placed into a vice like grip, and an adjustable claw of sorts is hooded over the crown. This claw is attached to an arm that spins in the right direction to wind the watch. The machine must be capable of sensing resistance so that it can stop spinning, so as not to damage the movement with over-winding.

The whole point of a watch winder is to be convenient, so that you don't have to wind the watch yourself if you are not wearing it. Thus, it is utterly ironic that the beautiful Bernard Favre Crown Winder must be manually wound itself. That's right, the Crown Winder device, is a manually wound watch winder for manually wound watches. This is starting to sound awfully ironic and perplexing. The nature of the device requires that you wind it yourself, so that it can wind your watch, itself. Yea, I don't quite get it either. Even if the power reserve in the Bernard Favre Crown Winder is longer than your watch's power reserve, it still has the same downfall. Though I don't think this is the case as I believe it has a 24 hour power reserve cycle.

The Crown Winder looks great, and I have no doubt is of a high quality commensurate with the luxury pricing, but is it just me, or did the designers completely gloss over the point of why people even want to invest in manually wound watch winders in the first place?

Ariel Adams publishes the popular watch review site aBlogtoRead.com.

The Orbita Tourbillon watch winder might not be as aesthetically pleasing as their wood models but what it does is pretty cool. The watchwinder has an ironless core Swiss micromotor that is is concealed within one of the two ball-bearing fitted stainless steel support rollers. On the rollers is a rotating cylinder that the watch is mounted on. Controls are provided on the circuit board for four different turns per day. The Tourbillon watchwinder essentially turns any mechanical watch into a tourbillon watch because the turning action is like that of the tourbillon within a wrist or pocket watch. Basically it cancels out the effect of gravity on a watch's balance wheel mechanism providing greater accuracy. The single watch model can be found for $745 at WorldLux. Multiple watch models are also available.