What our customers say:

Watch Winder 101, Everything you wanted to know about Automatic Watch Winder(s) but you were afraid to ask!

Which Winder is the best Value for the least money?

Eilux offers the best value if you must stretch your dollars. The Eilux Single, the Eilux Double, or the Eilux Triple are good choices. Need a Watch Winder plus storage case?

I need a Simple to use, no programming needed Winder?

Some watch winders are pretty complex. Orbita makes the best winders, but most of them are pretty complicated to figure out. However, their newest winder series, the Sparta, is much easier. The Sparta Winder series is a new patented technology which operates in a revolutionary way. (No pun intended) It mimics human wrist movement almost perfectly, and responds automatically with no need for programming or looking up winding needs of your watch. It winds all watches of all sizes and all winding requirements from a Rolex Daytona to a Breitling. It also automatically winds watches needing Bi-directional winding, Counter Clock Wise, or Clock Wise winding. Just decide on which winder sounds best. Click the link and read about it add it to your cart and buy today!
Simplest Cheapest, no dustcover Sparta Open 1 Watch Winder (good for large & small watches).
Leather Covered Sparta Compact 1 Watch Winder.(not good for large watches).
Deluxe Wood Cased Sparta 1 Deluxe Mahogany Watch Winder.(good for large watches).

Orbita Siena Winder Series is highly recommended for winding your Omega, Oris, Patek, Tag Heuer, Breitling, Cartier, Panerai, Rolex, Maurice Lacroix Automatic Watches!

Simplest and cheapest Double Winder, no dustcover Sparta Open 2 Watch Winder (Great for large & small watches!)
Leather Covered Sparta Deluxe Leather Boxed 2 Watch Winder.(not good for large watches.)
Deluxe Wood Cased Sparta 2 Watch Winder.(good for large watches.)

What is the single most important factor to consider when purchasing a Watch Winder? Where you purchase the winder is your most important decision. Buy only from an Authorized dealer like Watchcases.com. (We certainly hope you choose us after reading our advice.) Again, this is a mechanical device you are looking at. A watch winder is not as complex as a car but, just like a car, a bad dealer can turn an otherwise great purchase into a nightmare. Should you need warranty work or repairs we can point you in the right direction. We know winders and we deliver on our promise of excellent timely service. Our suppliers know we support them and likewise they support us. We under promise and over deliver. Just check what our customers have said about us.

Where should I buy my watch winder?

Of course we think you should buy from us, but we are not the only legitimate dealer on the net. We have some excellent competition that I send customers to when we run out of stock. However, we also have some very non-legitimate competition, but you can usually tell when you stumble upon one of them. First look at the web site then look at the prices offered. If they are competitive, just a tad bit better. Then you know they are legitimate, if they are half the price of the "going retail", you should know better! Unless they are the factory site, such prices are not even feasible at closeout! I know it is tempting, but I implore you, buy a product that will do the job. Do not just get a cheap gadget that does not work. The worst case scenario for some of these sites would be for them to save your credit information. Protect yourself from identity theft or worse! You probably don't buy watches from the guys in the trench coats in NY..."psst, wanna buy a nice Rolex?" So don't fall for the same ploy on a website or pretend magazine...you get what you pay for.

What questions should I be asking myself about a Watch Winder?

Is the winder reliable and does the winder actually function in accordance to the needs of my expensive automatic watch? A watch winder is more than a jewelry box. Cheap jewelry boxes are easy to come by. A watch winder is a rather complex mechanical device. A winder, like a watch is all about what is inside! (I mean the movement or motor.) Is it really a watch winder or simply a watch spinner? Is it a watch winder or simply a watch grinder?

What reliability can I expect from a winder after the warranty expires?

The better winders will be reliable but, more importantly, a quality winder will be repairable; the low quality winders will often just need to be thrown away. (No matter how pretty the jewelry box they came in was.) If the inside winder motor breaks, the whole thing must be tossed. Remember the important part of a winder is the unseen motor, which is the part that adds most of the cost to the winder. My experience is quality products are good for about twice as long as their maximum warranty. (Orbita for example offers 5 years on optional extended warranty. So 10 years would be fair to expect them to perform!) Most products are good for just a little bit longer than the maximum warranty offered by the company making the product. Cheap winders are rarely good for longer than a year or two. Quality Winders are repairable and tend to last at least twice as long as they are warrantied. Eilux and Orbita offer extended warranties of up to 3 years for their winders. Most other manufacturers only offer 1 year warranties, and many cheap winders offer 30 day warranties. Orbita claims that their winders and others should provide reliable service for 8 to 10 years. Eilux makes no life expectancy claims but in 4 years we have only seen a couple in need of repair. Both companies offer US based repair facilities. Most other winders do not offer such repair services. Why is that? It is cheaper to replace than to repair cheap winder brands.

What are you talking about? I saw this "German named winder" that had a "life time replacement".

Don't be fooled by a "German sounding" name! Unless it is made in Germany and priced accordingly(That is expensively). Get the companies home page and its country of origin. Look for a .de in the domain extension for German products and .ch for Switzerland. Most fake German name winders are made in China. Do not be taken in with "life time replacement". No German automobile manufacturer offers such a program. They fix the broken car, and they don't throw it away and replace it. Garbage is thrown away, quality merchandise is repaired! Winders are not as reliable as fine Swiss automatic watches. If you own an expensive watch you can safely expect a lifetime of service from it but a comparable quality winder would cost tens of thousands of dollars and still would not last as long as a watch due to the heavier load placed on a winders moving parts! Good winders do a lot of work.

What is the single most important mechanical factor to consider when purchasing a Watch Winder?

Most importantly you need to buy a quality product, not the cheapest thing you can find. Then I think there are really 2 other factors and they are both of equal value. They are reliability and function. Mechanically for a watch winder to work it must start and stop with some force. A sudden change of direction imparts the force to the rotor in such a way as to add "charge" or "wind" to the automatic watch. A toy will break soon after being bought. A machine will not break. At least, not for a few years....

Mechanical Factor? Who are you kidding? Isn't it just a little gizmo that spins my watch?

This is the precise impression we find ourselves fighting against daily. A true watch winder is in fact a mechanical device. A cheap toy winder will move your watch, round and round, but long term it will not actually wind your watch. Automatic watches require a specific angle of rotation, a specific minimal and maximal winding speed, and a specific gravity and forced stop. Automatic watches are complex and the winders that do the job intended are also rather complex patented little machines! They are not cheap little toy gadgets like the ones being sold in Airplane & Gadget magazines. Expect to pay about $200 for an entry level winder and in the thousands for a complicated multiple head winder. That is, if you want a quality product that will work for more than a few months and will wind your watch collection! If you are getting a gift for someone, get them the best item you can afford, gifts that break are not good relationship builders!

Can one of your watch winders damage my watch?

None of our winders will damage your watch. Our suppliers have too much money invested in their companies to risk such damage and automatic watches are built to tolerate a large degree of over winding. In fact, many automatics claim they are impossible to over wind!

Can a watch winder cause an automatic watch to gain or loose time?

No. An automatic watch generally either winds the watch, keeps it wound, or it does not and the watch stops totally. If the watch stays working but loses a few minutes then the problem is with the watch, not the winder. The winder simply delivers the laws of physics. The watch itself is solely responsible for the time keeping accuracy of the watch.

If the watch is not being wound enough it will slow at a constant rate and eventually stop. Losses of 3-5 minutes a day are common with automatics, though not heavily advertised!

Why do I notice my watch having the wrong time now that it is on the winder for a few weeks?

Note: automatic watches generally are not as accurate as quartz watches and re-adjustments of a few minutes here or there are to be expected. In fact most manufacturers tell you to hand wind your watch from time to time. The so called automatic part is basically a luxury addition which allows you to forget to wind your mechanical watch occasionally! Mostly the automatic winding apparatus saves you from having to reset multiple complications. Though the time may be off by 10 minutes or so, the day, the date etc are usually fine when the watch is placed in a quality watch winder partially charged to start with. This is the reason the higher end winders come with digital clocks and or the really high end ones have digital atomic clocks in the winders, so you can check and reset the time.

What do you mean a winder will help you maintain your watch?

Usually the winder points out a problem which previously went undetected and the owner is able to address it in a timely fashion.

Sometimes people have watches that have sat unwound for years and they put it on a winder and think the winder is causing the watch to run fast or slow or some other issue. I assure you, it is not the winder. It is simply now that the watch has a constant winding movement and remains wound for months you can now see the natural tendency of an automatic watch to gain or loose time. Automatics should be serviced regularly. Every 1-2 years your jeweler should have a look at it. Most people never do this maintenance work.

Can I over wind my automatic watch?

Answer: No and Yes! OK, I mentioned this before. I do not mean to confuse. Technically speaking it is impossible to over wind an automatic watch. Why? They are built with 'slip mechanisms' to prevent over winding. You can overstress the watch, though.

I read my Rolex requires 650 turns per day bidirectionally? But most winders do not wind to that precise number, what do I do?

Watch manufacturers give minimal winding requirements, not maximal. The number 650 means at least 650 TPD. A maximum is not given. Why? If you could over wind a watch they would have big bold print warning for you. Because automatics by design cannot be over wound with normal activity.

Why? They are built with 'slip mechanisms' to prevent over winding. Why? Well, imagine one day you are assigned the task of sharpening all the office pencils! You see, Rolex and other watch makers knew people move at differing rates, from one day to the other, one person to the other, so they realized that they had to allow for that. Early on watch makers did not allow for this and a lot of broken watches resulted! However, keep in mind, one can over use things. I do not know the long term effect of placing an expensive automatic watch on a watch winder which winds it far more turns per day than the watch manufacturer suggests. I am talking about winders that wind almost all day, giving a watch 20-30 (twenty to thirty) times the wind needed, not double or triple the minimum requirements.

I do know that Orbita, Eilux, Rapport, and Wolf Designs all have spent a ton of money developing and researching winding requirements. They do not price their winders higher than cheap imports just for the fun of it; they actually make a much better product. Orbita makes a winder, the Orbita Sparta, which actually winds watches a bit more than some watches require. Sometimes double the requirement but this is not a problem at all! When I say 'over wind,' I am not talking about double, or even triple, I am talking about 24 (twenty four) times or more than needed! A watch that needs 600 TPD as a minimum can easily adjust to 1400 TPD When worn on your arm a watch often experiences in excess of 3,000 TPD of motion with no harm to the watch! Cheap winders tend to simply spin the watch an excessive amount because they do not start and stop with enough inertia and at the proper angle to effectively distribute the energy to the watch rotor. In theory, your watch should be fine. But why put thousands of dollars at risk for temporary savings of a few hundred dollars?

The Winders you carry are all so expensive. I was hoping to spend less than $100. Like in the gadget magazines and other cheap web sites. Why are your winders so expensive?

This is an excellent question! Simply put, you should not compare apples and oranges. Toys and machines. Prices have gradually been pushed down ober the past couple of years. However, the companies we carry all have a commitment to quality and one cannot go too cheap and maintain quality products. One way, though not the only way, to evaluate a companie's commitment to R & D is to do a patent search. Do a search yourself at the US Patent Office Website for watch winder. This will give you some possible insight into the market place.

No R&D goes into the cheap products on the market; at least none that I can see. I was surprised that none of the cheap product manufacturers seem to hold a single patent dealing with watch winding!

Every one of the quality manufacturers that we carry have their own US and or international patents. Or they have purchased the rights from the owner of such patents. Do a search yourself at the US Patent Office Website .

I do not want to do a patent search, can't you just tell me a little bit about what you found?

Ok, it was alot of work, but it was kind of fun. First, let me say, anyone can search the online US Patent Office Website but this does not mean a whole lot. I am not a patent attorney and my search could hardly be called exhaustive. If you do a quick search for automatic watch winders you will notice some interesting things!

You'll notice Chuck Agnoff's name a lot; he owns Orbita Corporation. You will also see Tze Sing Siu of Eilux/Everwell Instruments, (now Eilux). You'll see Simon Wolf, of Wolf Designs, you even might stumble across some watch companies like Takahashi Masaaki of Seiko, or Timex's Paul Wuthrich. You will even notice a very good over priced brand which we do not carry Alessandro Rustioni of Underwood Corporation. Even my deeper searching did not yield any of the Cheap Importers with any rights what so ever to watch winders. This was important to me.

This is interesting, can you tell me more? Who did you find holding patent rights on watch winders?

I am not a patent attorney, and my point is not a legal point. These other companies probably have rights that I am not aware of I simply could not locate them despite considerable effort on my untrained part. However, it was pretty easy to find the legitimate patent rights of the major brands in the US watch winding industry. My point is just to say, we carry brands with a legitimate claim, real business investments, and a documented knowledge base in the Watch Winder Industry. Not fly by night copy cat companies. We carry winder products from people and companies who have done original research and design of a unique product and who applied for patents on their work. Below is a random listing of Patent information I was able to find in a couple hours of searching. The same names kept appearing over and over despite how deep I went and despite variations on keywords etc. But what do I know? I am not a patent attorney and I do not play one on TV and I did not even sleep at a Holiday Inn Last night. Below is a brief sampling of my "Quick Search" results. U.S. Patent Documents : 6254270 July 2001, Agnoff (Orbita) D455449 April 2002, Siu (Eilux/Everwell) 6439761 August 2002 Agnof: (Orbita) 6543929 April 2003 Agnoff: (Orbita) D474216 May 2003-Siu : (Eilux/Everwell) D4552256 December 2001 Wolf (Wolf Designs) D455449 April 2002 Siu (Eilux/Everwell)

Which brand winder should I buy?

Any brand winder that we sell is a good choice. However, even among our line up some items stand out more than others. The winders that we sell have proven themselves in the market place with reliable products and sound factory warranty support provided with in the USA! (Not true for most of the competition.) For reliability and function, Orbita and Eilux are neck and neck. Orbita has an edge on program versatility. Both companies offer extended multiple year warranties. The larger the winder the more important the manufacturer is in the decision. By large I mean the more winder heads the unit has the more important the decision. Orbita is the best choice for larger winders(those with more than 4 winder heads). They are the only company which is US based. They actually repair winders. Many other companies simply toss the device in the trash. People pay $20,000 for a car and sell it in 4 years, yet they expect a winder to last forever. For that kind of dependability you would need to pay approximately $2,000 for a single winder head. (The average car loses 50% of its value in 4 years and usually starts to need monthly repairs, so do the math, $10,000 divided by 4....) Also the larger the winder the more important it is to buy from a winder dealer. Why? Any jewelry store can sell you a winder, but what kind of clout do you think he has with the manufacturer when he only sells 1 or 2 a year?

We talk to Orbita and Eilux on a daily basis. This is important.

This is the primary criteria WatchCases.com uses to determine which winders we carry for sale. If we do not carry any winder brand it is because the winder does not meet these minimal requirements or is too expensive to give the customer value.

What is the single most important factor to consider when purchasing a Watch Winder for the bed room? Another factor of high importance is the loudness of the winder, or rather the quietness! Does it "grind away" all night and keep you awake? No winder is totally quiet but the ones that we carry will work for most people and we guarantee them with a 30 day money back guarantee!

I saw some cheap winders being sold on late night TV recently and the guy was barking "see how quiet it is"? To a novice his rhetoric might work, but since I have heard every winder work, all I could think was "It sounds like a drill grinding away!" I guess quiet is relative? For me it is absolute; either the winder is quiet or it is not. Theirs was not.

Orbita and Eilux make the quietest running models. Eilux/Everwell are the absolute quietest winders. Orbita Winders are a close second place (I would refer to both brands as "whisper quiet") followed by Wolf Designs Watch Winders and Rapport Winders.

Wolf Designs has found a unique work around. Their solution is worth considering for watches you will leave winding long term. What is it? Wolf designs simply makes the winder turn off any winding at night and wind only in the daytime hours. What a nice solution for the true light sleeper!. Their solution, however, is not good for customers who place their watches on the winder at night time only. Now if you compare not running at all to either Orbita or Eilux, then Wolf Designs has them both beat! Rapport winders are quiet, but about twice as loud as the other 2 brands and about equal to the Wolf Designs Winder when the motor is running. No winder is dead quiet! All winders will get noisier as they age, 30 day warranties are not good warranties if quietness is a factor for you.

All watch winders look the same to me. Is there really any difference? YES! Though most cars "look the same", most people would concede that cars can be very different! Price and Quality are closely related. Watch Winders are actually even more fundamentally different than cars! The government does not regulate and look at safety and reliability of Watchwinders and there are no "winder lemon laws". WatchCases.com is your only safety net; we evaluate the winder market and offer the products that actually work! We sell the real products, not cheap counterfeits!

This is a tough market. You are just a click away from a competitor. The internet business is easy to enter cheaply, but it is hard & expensive to stay in long term. My advice is to just look at the quality of the website and do not underestimate the potential for fraud. If it feels wrong, it is.

If you notice Orbita Winders for sale by any of my top competitors the prices will all be within a few dollars of each other. Why is that? Well, real competitors have bills to pay and must sell things at a reasonable markup.(which is not as much as some people seem to think!) However, the internet forces us to "be honest" and not try to hit home runs on any items by over charging.

We push our prices down to a point that below means we would have to close the doors. It is a simple concept. Don't be fooled! Ebay has used items that can be bought for a "steal" but new retail items are not priced "too good to be true", if they are legitimate I should say.(By the way, never buy a used winder; people never sell used winders that work.)

Why are your winders more expensive than the watch winders offered in gadget magazines and airplane magazines? A watch winder is a complex mechanical device, not a toaster! Though some Chinese factories are producing winders as you would a toaster (one after the other in volume exceeding the demand). Recall the Yugo automobile? Dealers sold them like hot cakes for a couple of years at a Great price but now they are no longer sold. Why? The highly demanding American market does not tolerate poor quality products for long. Low Price can sell an item for awhile, but quality keeps the sales going. Our business model does not revolve around junk mail or telemarketing. We rely on word of mouth and solid performance of our products.

What options are available with regard to power supply for winders? Well designed WatchWinders can be made which function well on batteries, an electrical outlet, or both power sources. You can get battery powered only, electric only, or dual powered winders which give you the ability to change power supplies as needed.

Does it matter for my watch if a winder is powered with batteries or an electrical outlet? No. It does not matter unless you have specific personal needs with respect to power needs. If you store your watch in a Safe, Vault, Closet, or Sock Drawer and do not have an outlet, then a battery powered winder is a must!

Why are some winders more expensive than others? Price is affected with options. Some options are with respect to programmability and some are with respect to power. Battery only models are cheapest, followed by electric. The priciest ones are the dual powered watchwinders.

Are there any safety issues that I should know with respect to Watch Winders? Quality winders are generally safe for you watch. However, cheap winders may not be. Price is the key to differentiate quality from garbage. One real important safety consideration is if it has an AC/DC adapter to make sure it is UL listed! (UL: Under Writer Laboratories.) Some cheap imports skip the expensive process of getting things UL rated, which could present a fire hazard. All the winders that we sell are UL listed and approved. This often adds to their cost. Underwriter Laboratories has probably saved more lives in the USA than penicillin! Just read Consumer Reports and you will hear similar advice, not about winders but about other items. Consumer Reports will never evaluate Winders, because the market is too small, but they do evaluate other devices with electrical supply and this is solid advice. I only recently realized the significance of this issue when my former neighbor's house burned down due to a "faulty ceiling fan" and one of my suppliers told me the same week that he was having trouble getting a new winder on the market because he could not get UL approval! He suspected it would take another 6 months to a year! Ah Ha! A major hurdle to do things right, eh? I don't feel bad about not selling cheap winders any more. Let the buyer beware! (Note: WatchCases.com does not sell Steinhousen Watchwinders, nor ERS watch winders.)

What should I consider with Battery Powered Winders? Some winders are made with battery power only. These are the cheapest to buy up front but batteries cost money to replace, so battery life is a really important consideration. Cheap Winders always burn through batteries. Why? Because they do not have expensive circuitry to start and stop the winder so the winder runs all the time and drains the battery (in addition to inefficient circuits, which waste power with excess heat). All the winders that we sell have good battery life. Most cheap winders on the market have a 1-3 month battery life. Ours range from 6-8 months for the average battery life expectancy of our battery powered winders to 2 years for the Orbita Sparta model watch winders. You should know that many units on the market have a battery life of only 1-3 months! Why are your winders more expensive than those sold in some other internet stores? Why are Real Rolex Watches more expensive than counterfeits? Price and Quality must combine to give value! The winders that we offer are the ones that provide value. I am a logical person. Hopefully that comes through in my writing and site design. Keep in mind, the less an item costs the easier it is to sell. Don't you think if we could sell a watch winder that worked to actually wind a watch for under $100 we would sell it along with the others?
You bet we would! But the truth is winders at those price points simply do not work! We stand behind our products and we make our money only by selling quality watch winders and watch cases. The inside components of a quality automatic watch are expensive to build and the same hold for an automatic watch winder.

Why is battery power a good choice? Typically if you prefer to store your expensive watch in a safe a battery powered winder is needed. If you want to store your winder in a closet or a sock drawer a battery powered winder is also a good idea. If you want to travel with the winder, battery powered units are usually more compact. Plus you never have to worry about loosing an adapter!

Why is a winder with an AC/DC adapter nice? In America electricity is abundant and cheap. A winder with an electrical cord saves the user the headaches associated with batteries (running dead unexpectedly and of course the need to replace them). After all, Soem people bought thier automatic watch in the first place because they hated batteries, or at least battery powered watches! Batteries always go dead at inconvenient times.

How can I remember to change the batteries? I tell customers to change the batteries in their winders when they change their smoke detector battery. Every change of daylights savings time!

Why are dual powered winders a good choice? Dual powered winders give you flexibility. You can stick the batteries in and shove the winder in a safe when you go on vacation then remove the batteries and plug the unit into the wall when you return. Plus if it is a gift it is hard to tell how the other person will use his new gift, but flexibility has a cost. It costs more money to make a dual powered winder!

Why don't large unit winders come with batteries? Most large multiple unit winders (3 or more) come with AC/DC adapters only because the battery drain would be unsustainable.

Do your Watch Winders have a warranty of at least 1 year? All the winders that we sell come with a minimum 1 year warranty. Orbita Watch Winders have 2 or 5 year warranties. The industry standard is 1-3 month warranties. We feel this is not enough for such an important item!

How can I evaluate a good winder and a bad winder? Look to pay about $150 to $300 per winder head and look for a warranty. Read the details on the winder. If the details emphasize the "beauty" and not the function or reliability then there is likely a reason for the omission. Watch Winders are not simply Watch Boxes. They both hold a watch and perform a mechanical task. Spinning a watch alone will not wind it. Watch Winders are mechanical devices which operate 24/7, not toasters that pop up after 30 seconds of work! We strongly recommend that all customers sign up immediately for the Warranties on any winder you purchase. We sell the best winders and even these stop working sometimes!

One observation I have made about warranties is that manufacturers tend to offer warranties which cover the life expectancy of their winders. Orbita's basic warranty is 2 years. Most quality winders offer 12 months and inferior models offer from 30 days to nothing. Orbita and Eilux even sell extended warranties at reasonable price points for up to 5 years. What does this tell you? It should tell you they know their product is good for multiple years! Warranties are insurance policies and the way you make money selling warranties is if stuff does not break! These 2 companies make solid products!

My friend bought a $100 winder online and it works fine! Why should I spend 2 or 3 times that for a WatchCases.com winder? I hear this all the time. however, shortly afterwards I also talk to many customers who come back to buy that very same "expensive" winder after the other cheap gadget failed. They then realize that they were comparing apples and oranges. With Watch Winders, the reality is if you put a watch on a cheap, inexpensive winder and never remove it 2 things will happen with absolute certainty; 1. The watch will stop or 2. The watch will break. Just because a device spins a watch does not mean it winds the watch and spinning a watch excessively can damage it. About 50% of my would be customers do not need a watch winder. (I have noticed by the way I am the only online Watch Winder retailer who says such blasphemy as "does not need a watch winder"...) These people wear 1 watch all day everyday and remove it only to sleep or go to the beach. Placing it on the Watch Spinner in naive confidence. These people put the watch on a cheap watch spinner and think the spinner is winding the watch. When, in reality, the watch itself is simply using the charge stored from having been worn all day. Any good watch will store extra charge and work fine for 24 hours and most will go upwards of 48 hours. It is only after returning from a Beach Vacation of 1-2 weeks that these people find out the Watch Spinner does not work as a Watch Winder. Sure it spins just fine, but it will not wind your watch. Our winders work. Sure your watch might gain or loose a few minutes time, but it will maintain the approximate time and date even after 6 months, not merely overnight. What more can I say?....

What factors are important when considering the purchase of a winder?

Aside from choosing a quality product, one must match the product with the person... Basically you need to consider who, when, where, why, and what. When you ask these simple questions before shopping the array of choices gets narrowed down very quickly and is less distracting and hence easier to decide. All the winders that we carry are excellent winders. We do not carry junk. We have sorted the market for you in advance. Who will use it? When will it be needed? Where will it be stored? Why are you getting it? What watches will be wound?

When will it be needed? Answering "The When" will tell you if you need a quiet winder, a travel winder, or just a basic winder. Answering "when" will also tell you if you need a winder rated for occasional winding or one rated for constant winding. Winders costing less than $200 are best for short term winding, while more expensive winders can do the job for months at a time.

Where will it be stored? Answering "The Where" will help with the decision if it needs to be a boxed/covered winder or an open model (For dust protection.) This will determine if it needs to be Battery Powered, Electric Powered, or both. "where will it be store?" will tell you the level of Style needed. A bedroom dresser, a closet, a sock drawer, a safe; all are common storage areas.

Why are you getting it? Why are you getting it? Frustration with the watch being totally unwound for the weekend activity? The time or date is wrong (way off not minutes)? Or maybe it is for the health of a collection of watches? Winders allow watches to "exercise". The longer the time untouched on the winder the more expensive a unit you will need.

What watches will be wound? What is being wound? 1, 2, or 3 different brands? The more variety of winding needs the more expensive winder you will need.

Which is the Best Watch Winder for you?

It depends on your needs and budget. This is a mechanical device, with internal movements and just like a mechanical watch there is a correlation between price and quality. Would anyone argue that a counterfeit or Rolex "wannabe" is as good as a real Rolex? (except for those crooks sending us 200 spam emails each week!) A fake might "look good" from a distance, but a real Rolex is worth every penny! Quality Mechanical Watch Winders likewise are worth every penny paid to protect the Automatic Watch within.

If I buy and use a Watch Winder will I be able "to set and forget my watch"? No, "you cannot set and forget." This is why the better winders like the Orbita Monaco Winder are equipped with an Atomic Digital Clock, minor time resetting may be needed depending on your watch wearing habits. (This is true of any winder. Automatic Watches are sensitive and a gain or loss of a few minutes must be expected. The more you pay the less fluctuation can be expected.) You should keep an eye on your watches and observe how they "keep time" on the winder. The winder setting may be wrong for your watch and might need adjusted. However, some watches simply drain power faster than any winder can keep up with. (Excluding the Orbita Sempre Winder, since Sempre winds the watch directly with the stem it can fully wind the watch.) Automatics are often called "Self Winding" but this is a misnomer. True the automatic watch was originally invented and marketed by Rolex to assist the absent minded person (like me) who forgets to wind his stem wound watch on a daily basis. The primary market for these watches was the very active sailing community. However, due to our sedentary lifestyles even the best automatic, worn daily, may need to be wound with its stem occasionally. This is also true when the watches are inside a watch winder. You should periodically remove your watch, set the time exactly and replace it in the winder.

Does paying more for a winder mean I am throwing money away? No, it does not. The inverse is actually true! Please also do not judge a winder by its cover! Like a good watch, the look is important, but not nearly as important as the movement (the mechanical part). There is a high correlation between price and performance with Watch Winders. Most people buy winders and they do not really need them. They put their watch on a winder each night, when all they would need to do is wind the stem each night. These people can get away with using cheap winders becuase the winders actually are doing very little winding. The watch itself is simply saving its own charge. Cheap winders do not have the strong and expensive break proof mechanical parts or expensive circuitry for operating the on and off cycles to the correct level.

Is Buying a cheap winder throwing hard earned money out the door? Yes it is! Look for value and performance. If your tastes are top notch, don't cheap out and get the Eilux/Everwell Winder instead of the Orbita Winder to save a few dollars. You will be disappointed with the Everwell's finish. Do you drive a Chevrolet or a Mercedes? Fit and Finish suffer when you pay less. Some people do not care about Aesthetics. Just don't expect to get "Great Works, Great Looks, and Great Price" in one unit! I rank these 3 elements as listed.

Which 2 Winder Companies Offers the Best Value? Orbita mixes these 3 key elements (works,looks,and price) for total value the best. Orbita usually meets 2/3 of them. Price being Orbita's weakness, since they don't usually compromise on Works or Looks! Their cheapest winder, the Orbita Sparta, is coincidently the ugliest but it works much better than any other entry level winder! Eilux/Everwell are also a good choice. They usually meet 2/3 of the Criteria. Eilux falls flat in the "Looks" department because they frequently skimp on fine finishing materials. If quality works matters to you these are the top 2 choices. Orbita edges out the Eilux in terms of winding accurately with less resetting of the watch. If looks matter to you Orbita puts more into the details of the external finish. It costs more to get the best!

How exactly does a more expensive winder demand such outrageous prices? It is all about what is inside. The mechanics or movement of the winder is just as important as the movement of the watch! Winders "maintain and extend" the watches power supply, but do not always do so at 100% capacity. At times even the best winders will allow a watch to loose time. You should remove your watch at least weekly and reset it and wind the power supply to almost full. (Check your manual.) Without a winder to help this would need to be done every 2 days. It is very difficult for a winder to maintain every brand of watch to maximum efficiency. The more expansive the winder the less manual intervention will be needed to keep an unworn watch wound. A winder will keep things close but maybe not exact. Adjusting the time by ten minutes here or there is to be expected. However resetting the time and date every time you go to wear your watch will no longer be needed in a properly set watch winder.The more you pay for a winder the better the performance you can expect. A watch you wear every other day or to an office daily would require the purchase of a less expensive winder than a watch you wear once a month. The longer the winder needs to work uninterrupted the better it needs to be!

The correlation between price paid, quality, and performance is even greater with winders since they are not mass produced as are some watches and do not carry the price tags of fine watches. Any of the 6 brands we carry are good choices; they all will safely wind any watch and do so for a long time without needing replacement or repair. This cannot be said of a lot of cheaper winders now on the market!

What company makes the best winder to protect my watches? Orbita, has the most flexible 100% programmable winders on the market to protect your watches from being over wound and this protection is a bit more expensive. Even Orbita's entry level model, the Sparta, is far superior to the competition.

If you have an expensive watch collection with a variety of movement settings and can afford to purchase an Orbita Winder I would encourage you to do so. If you cannot afford "the best", all of the winders that we sell are safe. Some general guiding principles? If you only have one brand of watch you can get by with spending less. Believe it or not you can actually spend much more and purchase a Scatola Del Tempo or Underwood Watch Winder! We dont sell these brands,though. Both are excellent products, but I think the Orbita is a better product and I know it is a better value!

If anything our watch winders should actually protect your investment since it will prevent the lubricants inside the watch from settling and leaving parts unprotected when restarted. This "settling" phenomenon is similar to a car left in storage. Click and Clack, the MIT graduates who host the popular National Public Radio program "Car Talk", recommend periodically restarting and running cars left in storage. Many of my customers own watches more expensive than the cars discussed on "Car Talk"!

Which Automatic Watch Winder is best for your needs? Individuals vary in what is important.

If all you need is "something that will work at the best price" for occasional winding, get an Eilux/Everwell Cylinder Winder or get an Eilux Cubic Winder or get the Orbita Sparta Watch Winder. (Listed in increasing price, the Sparta actually will also work on winding a watch constantly. Months at a time.)

It should be pointed out,though, that the cheaper winder units tend to be made with a plastic outside case and plastic watch holders. As you move up in price the materials used go up in quality. As you move up in price you also get a more robust winder. The entry level Eilux/Everwell Cylinder Winder does great winding a watch that is worn only occasionally (once a week). However, I do not recommend these units for someone wanting a watch wound non stop for weeks or months at a time. The Orbita Sparta is the only entry level winder I recommend for winding a watch for a month or more untouched. Please do not be dissuaded by the fact that the Eilux/Everwell Cylinder/Cubic is plastic. The internal movement is sound! They do offer the same winders with leather exteriors , which do nothing for the winding ability. However, many people feel the unit is of a higher quality. I think it is just more expensive. We do not carry other "cheap" watch winders because we have found and many of our customers have found "the hard way" that they do not work!Note: We do not carry Steinhausen Watch Winders and we do not carry ERS watch winders.

"I am a klutz. I cannot program my toaster" which winder is best for me?

Most owners of mechanical watches are mechanically inclined. (Some to the point of obsession; I have customers who take their Rolex apart for fun!) However, many customers have watches received as gifts or purchased because they did not want to deal with the hassle of changing a watch battery! If this describes you, the only winder you should consider is an Orbita Sparta model. Why? Because the Sparta's unique patented design allows you to pop your watch on and not fuss with any buttons or settings , while still allowing you to keep your watch properly wound. Another bonus for "battery change phobic people" is the Sparta design allows it to run for 2 years on regular "D Cell" batteries! Sparta model for 2 watches. Sparta model within a beautiful Wooden Box.

Dependability? Which Winders are the most dependable? Orbita has a 2 year Warranty. Most others have 1 year warranties. Orbita, Buben & Zorweg, Eilux/Everwell has similar return/dependability records for us at WatchCases.com, which is close to 0%). Rapport and Wolf Designs do very well also but we have experienced a higher rate of problems/returns, closer to 2% (Two percent, not 20%! Only 2!). Compare this with the Industry Average of 10% or more and the defect rate on cheaper units running 25-50% and you will see that all of the products that we carry are Excellent Dependability choices! You also see why we do not carry those "cheap winders". We believe you get what you pay for. Orbita and Buben get the nod from us for Ultimate Dependability, with Buben barely beating out both Orbita and Eilux/Everwell. However, Wolf Designs and Rapport are far better than EFS Winders or Steinhousen Winders or any other cheap winders sold in gadget magazines or anywhere on the market! This is a mechanical device, don't buy a Yugo! Stick with Buben, Orbita, or Eilux/Everwell for top rated dependability. Wolf Designs and Rapport are next after these brands for top quality value.

If you need to "have the best" get an Orbita. I think Orbita makes the best winder in the world. They have been unbelievably supportive of WatchCases.com and our customers when anything has gone wrong or been found to be defective.

I want something that is "Made in America". Orbita Watch Winders are the only choice. American design with world wide Patents, Swiss Movements, (hence their dependability & quality). Orbita operates from Wilmington NC and Europe based ORBITA WATCHWINDER GmbH in Austria. Do a patent search on watch winders. Chuck Agnoff, the President of Orbita, holds almost all of the major patents. (Also note that we only carry products which have legitimate patent rights to manufacturing Watch Winders.) Many Cheap Winders are usurping other patent rights, please do not help these companies destroy American Industry! We refuse to carry their products, but the consumer is the final protection. People complain about jobs being sent over seas, but they keep shopping for those cheap imitation or fake products.

I need a watch for travel? Get an Eilux/Everwell Cubic .

Which Watch Winder to wind a bunch of watches? The new Wolf Designs 4 Watch Winder, 6 Watch Winder, or Large 8 watch winder are all good winders priced competitively. But Orbita makes the best large multiple watch watchwinder on the market in my opinion (price not being a consideration. Just quality wise). Some other companies make beautiful large winders, but the quality is suspect and we do not offer their products.

What if you only have 3 watches? Price wise the Eilux/Everwell Triple Winder has an edge, but Orbita is the best again, when all factors are given equal weight.

Read other opinions about Watch Winders. This site is very interesting and informative.

Why? We are the only store committed to selling all of the best brands of watch cases and watch winders, not just one or 2 brands! We are authorized dealers for all of the products that we sell. In addition to this, most of our suppliers bend over backwards to give us extra service because of our reputation in this niche. If something goes wrong we will work to fix it.

We have seen every brand and we carry the best quality, best value winders available in the world today!

We stand behind our products and our suppliers stand behind us. We sell at competitive prices yet not at "soon to be out of business" prices. We make money selling watch cases and watch winders, not selling customer information. We do not make our money selling your information, email, telephone number, or address. We treat our customers right and they tell their friends.

We realized along the way that we would not be able to compete with "low ball pricing" no service websites, and we decided our customer was not likely to purchase from such a site. We offer excellent products at fair prices. We promise you our best service and we thank you for shopping with us. Save your time and order a winder from us today!

Thanks. Donald Geib, President WatchCases.com.

Other How to Choose sections:
How to Choose a Watch Winder
How to Choose a Watch Case
How to Choose a Jewelry Case

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