I actually repaired watches for a living for a while and have a college degree for it, having worked on some of the most expensive watch brands in the world (Piaget, Corum, etc... watches that retail for six and seven figures). I possessed a skilled trades license for the job.
Overwinding is a myth. You *really* have to muscle into the thing to damage a watch this way if it's a watch of any quality whatsoever. Cheaper watches can take damage when the torque reaches maximum limits when the watch is fully wound and the stem breaks, a relatively simple repair, but hardly worth it for a watch under $100. Despite what zhukora1 has said, there's no way to "misalign" the mainspring, and the tension in the mainspring cannot damage the mechanism.
(zhukora1, your vintage watch that needs to be "tinkered with to keep things lined up properly" likely needs an overhaul and maybe a new mainspring. If anything were damaged through "overwinding" it wouldn't run at all
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Thanks for the tip. I clearly don't have the requisite mechanical background, and was mainly positing a response based on my experience with watches and what I've been told by people more knowledgeable than myself. I'll eventually get around to having it looked at by a professional.
I got a couple of these thanks to the original post, and yesterday wore one with my steampunk 'halloween'(really just an excuse to dress up) outfit. I found it in the morning before I left and it's still going. As the others have said, don't be afraid of overwinding, you will definitely feel when the tension is getting to be to the point of being difficult to wind. And to anyone that doesn't have one of these and is interested, there are still plenty of listings, be sure to pay attention to the sizes though. I meant to order all smallish ones and got one small and one larger. Love them both but still wished I had paid attention lol.
indeed, the running down that quickly sounds like something is amiss. the suggestion to keep it wound and operating, is pretty much bogus, if anything may have to do with the lubrication, classically they used whale oil which almost never thickens or goes rancid, but in the days after whale oil fell out of vogue and before the lithium greases and teflon lubricants came out folks may have tinkered with other more thickening oils.
The tradition of winding watches regularly when one wakes up or whatnot has more to do with the timeframe you are tiptoeing around with steampunk, a very accurate watch is no good if it winds down and is now all of a sudden 3 hours slow. and in the time of early watches if you were not near a train station if you let it run down you had a pretty piece of jewelry until you were able to get back on some sort of standardized time. (no checking the tele, or checking online.
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Overwinding is a myth. You *really* have to muscle into the thing to damage a watch this way if it's a watch of any quality whatsoever. Cheaper watches can take damage when the torque reaches maximum limits when the watch is fully wound and the stem breaks, a relatively simple repair, but hardly worth it for a watch under $100. Despite what zhukora1 has said, there's no way to "misalign" the mainspring, and the tension in the mainspring cannot damage the mechanism.
(zhukora1, your vintage watch that needs to be "tinkered with to keep things lined up properly" likely needs an overhaul and maybe a new mainspring. If anything were damaged through "overwinding" it wouldn't run at all ( ... )
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And to anyone that doesn't have one of these and is interested, there are still plenty of listings, be sure to pay attention to the sizes though. I meant to order all smallish ones and got one small and one larger. Love them both but still wished I had paid attention lol.
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The tradition of winding watches regularly when one wakes up or whatnot has more to do with the timeframe you are tiptoeing around with steampunk, a very accurate watch is no good if it winds down and is now all of a sudden 3 hours slow. and in the time of early watches if you were not near a train station if you let it run down you had a pretty piece of jewelry until you were able to get back on some sort of standardized time. (no checking the tele, or checking online.
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