Manual wind pros & cons Pros: 1.) Thinner (good for dress watch) 2.) Lighter (good for dress watch) 3.) Have more control in center spring not to fully wind it all the time so the coil spring will have longer life. Cons: 1) Prone to overwind (it depends if the owner is a newbee) 2) Prone to loose the oring inside the crown due to daily winding it & can cause water damage. (not good for a dive watch) 3) Have to wind it atleast 1 to 2 times a day. Automatic Pros & cons Pros: 1) Never have to manually wind it. 2) Don't have to operate the crown except if you adjust the time which maintainss the oring in good condition for water resistant. (good for dive watch). Cons: 1) Thicker (not good for dress watch) 2)Havier (not good for dress watch) 3)The center spring for power reserve is always fully wind which can cause it to wear out faster than a manual wind... 4) Frequent winding of the rotor if the owner is having plenty of activities can cause too much friction on metal parts so the oil in the jewel wore faster & also the metal parts will wear out faster because the rotor is uncontrollable inside it.. I wish there is a movement that can stop the rotor inside if the center spring is fully wound up then starts to rotate again if it is half wound up.. Vedict: Manual winding for a dress watch. Automatic for a dive watch.
A more practical reason manual wind vs automatic is the constant moving of rotor wears it out faster. Another win manual vs automatic is that the watch can be made thinner.
yes but for a dive watch the automatic is better because it prevents the wear out of oring inside the crown.. manual winding can cause issue to water resistance due to frequent winding of the crown.. so for a dress watch manual winding is better.. For a dive watch automatic is a must..
I like how Jonathan Harker talked about his wristwatch in Dracula. He would always wind it before going to bed. And then the one time he didn't wind it was I think when he almost got eaten by the 3 sisters. And that's how he came to the conclusion that happened. And it also tells you that wristwatches existed in the 1890s instead of him using a pocketwatch. And typewriters were a new invention too. Cool history learned from reading old books.
All I had for years were manual wind before the quartz came out. I don't remember having to wind the manual more than once in a day, usually morning. Sometime I would wind the watch during the day only because I had to fidget with something, but I don't remember it being necessary. They were mostly Timex watches. I ordered 5 auto/manual today, all low price, just for the variety. I have a collection of 2 dozen quartz watches of various prices from 25 to 300$.
I feel quite ignorant now that I realize I bought an automatic self-winding watch and didn't know it... I wanted a "skeleton" watch for many years and finally found one I liked online. It was at a good sale price for a high-quality watch but when I got it, it seemed to not work. As the idiot I am, I thought, oh, it needs a new battery. Well two years later I finally got the watch out to take it in for a new battery and wow... it was working! Sitting in a box for two years and I could have worn it all that time! Now I am learning about this... because it stopped working again after one day ... but a bit of moving it and it starts again... so... learning now...
@@LifeontheWrist the max bill is a thing of beauty. A word thrown around a lot when describing it is 'understated' and that is due to the size. It's a simple, elegant watch that always gets a lot of respect for true watch aficionados.
I like manual much more. If you have multiple watches its so easy to wind them quickly and keep them going. Some how I feel more connected to them. For dive watches where one needs a screw in crown the automatic is better.
The “automatic” word on wristwatches is the 1900’s context of what “automatic” is, not our generation’s usage of automatic. Back then, this is a highly innovative piece of kit to just keep on winding itself as long as you wear it. As for the changing of timezones, GMT was created late 1800’s but back then, jet planes haven’t existed yet. You’d sit on a steam ship for 2 weeks to get to the other side of the Atlantic, and then change your timezones. Highly well-spec for a watch being able to be set then and there. Nowadays, this technology is obsolete for us, we just keep buying wristwatches as toys. So yes, you gotta wind and set it yourself, like what the 1900s practices were.
Was thinking of buying stowa marine watch, but idk what to choose between automatic or handwind. Handwind is 100 something more expensive. Le me know what to choose thanks. Great video
Hey! Great watch - tough choice between automatic and manual wind. I personally would go with manual wind as I enjoy winding my watches daily. If that’s the same with you, go for it! Thanks for watching!
@@LifeontheWrist thank you I think I've made a decision with automatic since its a bit less expensive. Love manual watches as well! Do you think this particular watch is worth the price since I'm paying about 900$? What is your experience on it? Pros/cons? Thanks for the reply
If you start to collect watches its great to just pickup a watch, give it a few turns and go. Date complications and rotors and batteries are a pain. Solar is really good, especially the new tech that powers on any light.
@@prod.deathwish Ok thanks pal. The watch I want is a laco b-uhr. It has hacking I think. So if the watch is not hackable you can’t rewind it without it stoping?
I tried on a Radiomir Panerai and I really like how easy it was to press the crown and the clicking when winding it felt perfect. I went to Hublot and tag but they only had a couple of choices and i could barly grip the crown. Felt terrible. I havnt tried IWC yet, but looks like they are similer to Panerai crown. What else should I check out?
New Chinese seagull hand wind especially the st2130 chronograph was venus 175 China bought in early 60s everything presses all equipment are fantastic and you cannot get better bang for your buck anywhere also shanghai manual wind excellent work horse of movement and really dependable and run for ys accuracy very good.
Late answer but it is same as Vostok Amphibia watch mechanism, to start it you need to wind it but than if you wear it every day it will self wind from rotor movement. It is automatic basically, but probably wont start working unless you wind it. Also if you take it off and dont move it, you will have to wind it again in order to start it. Winding it will give a charge.
You probably don’t need to wind it daily! I wind my watches weekly, but you could go a couple of weeks before you would need to wind it. Just to keep the oils moving
Thank you for the video, any relation to Willem Dafoe?? I would do the ancestry thing because you probably have a relative in that direction look alot like the awesome actor.
So automatic watches are basically like mechanical watches since they both use gears to operate, expect, with autos u don’t have to wind right? Also do auto watches tell accurate time?
I would love to have a modern, manual wind watch between 38-41mm but can’t find any for my budget ($500 and below). Seems like 99% of manual wind watches in this price bracket are smaller, vintage ones.
Life on the Wrist I’m looking for a field/pilot’s watch but also like dress watches. I did try on the Junghans Meister hand winding in a store a year or so ago but it was out of my budget. Guess I could always try the used market... Thanks for the reply!
Mick B Oh yes, that’s a classic. A bit too “Chairman Mao-esque” for my taste but a fantastic looking chronograph movement and a lot of watch for the money.
You can on some watches, but there's many you can't, even some newer watches. Plus, you never know when it's done winding. There's a satisfaction you get when the crown stops spinning and you know you're fully wound. There's also some opinions that winding an automatic by the crown wears the watch faster since it wasn't designed to be wound regularly by the crown.
What do you when don’t wear a manual watch for a few days, or longer, or when you don’t take it on a trip, do you just let it run down and stop? What do you do with an automatic, I know you can get boxes which keep rotating them, but is it worth it?
I personally do not use a watch winder for my automatic watches. If you do not get the right ones, they can just cause a lot of wear on the movement. For manual wind watches, I just let them run down. It’s important to wind them and not leave them for long periods of time because you want to make sure the oils are still flowing around the movement
