How to Buy a Winder: What Trade Offs are made with cheap winders ?
What are the trade offs between price and performance?
Trade off #1. For a winder to impart sufficient kinetic energy into the watch rotor to 100% charge it requires forceful stops and or complete change of direction. This results in high break down rates of the winder or expensive ball bearings to take the force. If there are soft stops the winder lives but the watch dies. Hard stops will keep the watch but you have to spend money hidden inside the winder. Fast buck companies making cheap winders simply gamble on living out their 30 day warranty.
Trade off #2. Cheaper winders tend to have one winding setting and this often is not quite long enough for watches to stay wound for extended periods (in excess of 1 week). Cheap winders tend to run on batteries and long winding cycles drain batteries! They take short cuts to claim long battery life and this result is poor winding results. And even though stops are required, the brakes use energy, so most cheap winders just coast to a stop. Energy is not transferred to the watch when coasting to a stop. Batteries are both expensive and damaging to the environment, so the issue of battery life is nothing to ignore. Orbita has emphasized and tested their winders for such issues. Personally I think these guys are nuts with their testing but their obsession results in a fine long lived product and the expensive winder usually ends up being the cheapest to own!
Trade off #3. Most cheap winders offer temporary life support. If the watches are worn regularly, the winder only needs to provide life extending service. The less expensive winder does not have the expensive computer circuitry for changing winding times, or winding direction or maximizing battery life etc. Cheap winders fail miserably at long term life and support. Winding for over a week will push a cheap winder to failure. The winder might still be spinning away, but the watch will have stopped completely. The winder simply does not impart enough inertial movement to the movement and the watch is not wound sufficiently. The trade offs are real. The more expensive winders have less trade offs. Buben and Zorweg make super tough high quality products with forceful stops and therefore cost much more than some other products made with lesser materials. Buben puts their money into the exterior looks and the internal motor toughness. Orbita puts their money into the finesse and functionality side of the equation. Both these options are expensive. Eilux/Everwell punts totally on looks and simply provides an internal mechanism that will work for a long time. Wolf Designs attempts to juggle the whole equation and recently they have made huge gains on the other winders in terms of reliability. Likewise Rapport Watch Winders has improved the reliability. Seems the good companies recognize it is all about what's inside!
