In addition to the brand of winder it is also helpful to understand the slight differences in winder structure.
1. Pay attention to programmability. The more valuable your collection the more important this is! (Though not as important as the industry lets on.) Fully programmable means you can set both direction and turns per day. This means that you will never over stress or over wind your valuable watch collection! A winder that is fully programmable will wind any automatic watch, yet a partially programmable winder may not. Orbita makes fully programmable winders, and so do Wolf Designs, and Rotolution. Eilux winders only allow for setting the turning direction, however the 900 turns per day that they are programmed for works great for most watches. Watch out for cheap winders that just spin the watch all day!
2. Consider the power source. Battery Powered winders are great for putting in a safe or if you need to move them around frequently. Battery life on the winders that we sell is 6-8 months for all brands except Sparta. The batteries in a Sparta will last 5 years or more.
3. Pay attention to watches per winder head and motor. This is really only an issue for "Cheap Winders" because the motors and rotational axles cannot take the weight. It is a common trick to put 2 winders on a winder head, but this will break a cheap winder!
4. Noise of operation. Will it be in your bedroom? Eilux winders are the quietest, with Orbita in close second. Rotolution is also quiet enough for the bedroom. If you're a light sleeper, we don't recommend the Wolf Designs winders for using in the bedroom.
5. Looks. You will pay more for a prettier winder. If you don't care about looks then you can save a lot. (Sometimes you can buy a scratch and dent model on clearance and save huge!) You will pay more for a covered box, and even more for glass viewing. Vanity rules...
6. Warranty. If a winder is going to break it will probably happen within the first 3 - 6 months. Otherwise, the winders that we carry will work for a very long time. All of our winders have at least a one year warranty. The Sparta winders have the longest warranty at five years,which even covers the batteries.
7. After Warranty? One thing about winders most people will not tell you up front is that they do break. They are not mass produced and they take a lot of wear and tear winding a watch 24x7 turning on and off, on and off. So what happens a few years down the road?
Well the majority of winders on the market are "Throw Away", that is they can not be repaired. Even if you can repair things yourself, you will not find the parts and so you have to toss it and start over. Orbita, Eilux and Buben and Zorweg are all repairable brands and have a record for long (years) life. If a winder is repairable it means EXPENSIVE parts are used and therefore it makes sense to invest in training people and setting up a supply chain. Throw away winders mean it is cheaper to replace the thing and that it is just a gadget and not worth the headaches hidden behind a cheap price. You really do get what you pay for with a winder. Why waste your time on junk? Buy a quality watch winder from the best watch winder source on the internet and maybe anywhere! WatchCases.com is the best, let us prove it! Buy today.
