Watches need power to work. Typically, this comes from one of two places: a battery, or energy stored within a spring within the watch’s movement.

So how do we get energy into a watch without a battery? We wind it! The first thing to understand is that all watches without batteries require some form of winding. The two main types of watch movement are powered by the owner winding the watch movement up by hand (hand/manual-wound movement), or by the sway of the owner’s wrist (automatic movement).

Have you ever picked up an automatic watch that hasn’t been worn for a few days, only to think that it has broken, because the hands aren’t moving? That’s because it takes quite a bit of energy to get an automatic watch started. That’s right, self-winding, automatic watches need winding too.

So, how do you wind a watch? The simplest answer is that you wind the crown. The crown is the little round thing on the side of the case. Before we tell you how to wind a watch, it’s very important to understand that two types of watches need a little extra attention:

Vintage watches: Old watches can be fragile, so you should be very gentle when handling them, and turning the crown.

Complicated watches: if your watch has lots of different dials, it means that it has lots of extra functions. It’s important to read the instruction manual to make sure you don’t do anything to damage the watch

Most watches will have either a screw-down or pull-out crown. A screw-down crown gives the watch more water-resistance, but it isn’t necessary. Many watches with simple pull-out crowns are perfectly water resistant.

Winding a pull-out crown

Pull-out is the most common type of crown. To wind this type of crown, all you need to do is leave the crown pushed in (picture below) and turn the crown (usually clockwise).

How many times you do this will vary watch by watch. Some watches might need 20 turns, others might need 40! There are two ways to tell once you have wound the watch enough. The first is if you have a power reserve indicator, it will fill up as you wind the watch (see picture). The second is the more common – you must feel that the watch is starting to resist you winding it. This is because you are putting energy into the watch by winding a spring. It’s important to not wind the watch too much, as you can break the spring that stores the energy. As soon as each turn increases the resistance, stop! It’s always better to under-wind a watch, but wind it regularly, that over-wind it once.

Winding a screw-down crown

If your watch is water-resistant, or designed for sports or diving, then there is a good chance that it is a screw-down crown. The image below shows a watch with its crown screwed down (on the left) and un-screwed (on the right). Screwing a crown in makes the watch more waterproof, but also stops you winding the watch, or setting the time. So the first thing to do is to unscrew the crown. You’ll typically turn the crown anti-clockwise to unscrew it. Once you have finished unscrewing it, you should feel a little click, and the crown should move with less resistance. To wind the watch, you then need to turn the crown in the opposite direction (clockwise). Like a pull-out crown, it’s better to under-wind, but wind regularly, than over-wind and damage the watch.

Other functions

The crown is also used to set other functions on the watch. The Audemars Piguet instruction booklet in the picture below shows the different functions that can be set by turning the crown. To get the crown into a position so that you can adjust any other functions (date, day, second time-zone), you will have to pull the crown out. For a pull-out crown this is simple: hook your finger nails between the case and the crown, and pull gently. You will feel a little click as the crown jumps to its setting position. It could have multiple stages that it can be pulled out to, so please check your instruction booklet. With a screw-down crown, all you have to do is unscrew the crown (see above) and the follow the instructions that we just provided for pull-out crowns.  

Each watch is different, so it’s really important to read the instruction booklet to understand what you are changing when you twist the crown in its different positions. Hopefully this short guide will give you the confidence to go and try out different types of watches, and help you avoid over-winding and potentially damaging your watch.

There are other ways of winding up watches, and some mechanical watches even have no crown at all. Clever examples include the Ulysse Nardin Freak, which is “crownless”, and the Hublot Ferrari, which comes with its own electric winder that looks like a mini drill. Here at The Watch Collectors’ Club we believe there is no best way to wind a watch, we simply enjoy the huge variety of clever designs out there. Follow us to learn more about this and many other aspects of watchmaking.