The Breitling Watch Source Forums

I put my Brookstone winder on a timer. It runs for 16 hours and takes 8 off. I did the math to make sure the TPD counts worked out right.

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Never thought about the rest period...just the overall TPD. The Brookstones work a bit differently than most winders. They will rotate once and "rest." The TPD setting determines how many times they spin (once) each day.

LL

I am putting a vote in for the Wolf Designs. Got an 8 watch Viceroy series 2 months ago and wanted to wait a couple months before placing my vote. It continues to run precisely and without any noise. Each of the eight rotors is individually adjustable in both directions and has an easy to use TPD feature in 50 turn increments. The LCD displays light up by touch. The unit is quite thin and combined with the simple vertical 4X4 arrangement uses minimal dresser top space. The see through front cover opens down and I thought that might be an issue, but prefer it now to other choices. The individual cups are easily removed and snap securely into place. It has locks, but anyone with two paper clips could unlock it. (a plus for me as I sometimes "lose" things)

I was a bit leery as the country of manufacture is China, but this a definitely not of the same POS quality as the very inexpensive ones I previously purchased on Amazon.

I was able to get this unit at discount for about $1500. Based on the features and performance, I'd say it is quite a bargain. Granted the unit is not made of wood and doesn't have expensive style accoutrements, but I wasn't looking for those things anyway. I have to give the Wolf Viceroy series a big thumb up for combined performance and value.

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SHARKMAN

I went with the Wolf 4.0 modular winders from Topper. I've had too much trouble with the Official time winders and I like the fact that if individual unit dies I can easily exchange it through warranty. It cost about the same for 8 units, $1500.

I also like the easy programming and the fact that i can tell it to wait 24 hours before winding again when i put a watch back in.

I looked briefly at one of those - what holds them together for stacking? Do they have some sort of interlocking device?

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SHARKMAN

Yup. There's little plastic blocks like dovetail joints you use. Topper threw in extras to set up my 2x4 stack.

- Dan

I'd be curious as well about Brookstone. I had a beautiful Wolf winder--for about 10 days. It quit and the dealer simply refunded my money, which makes me think there may have been something fishy, maybe unfair to Wolf there, but...
I followed up with a no-name dual winder which has worked for the past six years. The watches run as they did when I wore them on my wrist. Due to a little expansion, I then bought another no-name eight watch winder. One switch ran the top four but two quit so I shut it off. The remaining four run fine on the bottom okay, though not as well as my first winder.

Right or wrong, I'm still a little gun-shy about spending significant dollars for a winder, with my experience.

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Scott

AP Royal Oak 15400, silver
Zenith Chronomaster El Primero Classic Cars
Vintage gold Corum
Rolex DJ 36 TT, oyster dial, oyster/smooth
Baume & Mercier Riviera 200m, silver dial/aquamarine bezel
Breitling Superocean 57, rose/stainless

why not start up an old topic?

I just bought a Wolf 2.7 brand new on e-bay for $400 w/shipping. The same one was at my AD for $899. It's the two watch model in Burlwood. I got it Friday and first impressions were that it was beautiful. It looked like a million bucks. I mean, it's not real wood or anything but it looks great. The watch cushions are nice and overall it's finished inside and out real well.

The two stations are individually controlled and each one can run from 300 TPD to 1200 TPD. You can adjust it in 50 TPD increments w/ a nice LED display. You can also select CW, CCW and BI-Directional winding. I put my Old Navitimer II on there Friday afternoon on 800 TPD (which I got from the Orbita data base, BTW) in the CW direction and as of today it's about 5 seconds slow. Darn near perfect- Plus, so far at least, it's very quiet while it's operating.

Their website is pretty good and explains all the features in Q & A style format. What sold me, is that on 800 TPD it will make 200 turns, rest 30 minutes, make 200 turns, etc until it reaches its 800 turns and then sleeps for 18 hours.

The only fuzzy thing, in my opinion, is when winding in the bi-directional mode. In the little instruction booklet, it says, quote: "The actual number of rotations will be double that of the TPD value when the rotator is in bi-directional mode." What the heck does that mean ??? Does that mean at 650 you are really getting 1,300 TPD ??

I have a Navitimer Heritage on its way and it winds 650 TPD bi-directionally. Do I set it for 650 or maybe 350? I actually called Wolf today, found a number on their website, and while answering on 2 rings was huge in their favor, I wasn't convinced the gal really understood my question. Her final answer after I read her the above quote was "set it for whatever the watch says".

I'd love some comments or better yet some other Wolf owners to sound off on what to set it at.

Well you can set it at 300 and the other at 650, turn them on at the same time and see what happens - does bi-directional run twice as long or the same as uni-directional.

Or you could "just set it for what the watch says." Classic.

All of my rotors are set uni-directional and at 650 TPD and all the watches have stayed wound over several months now.

Sounds like you got a good deal on ebay, but others should be warned there are fake Wolf winders now. Even without this killer 50% off sale, they are readily available through online and brick and mortar ADs for 30-40% off.

Mine continue to run silently with the glass (plastic actually) door up and latched. A little noise with it down, but I never leave it that way.

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SHARKMAN

Bi-directional really means 'either' so you can set it to run all clockwise or all anti-clockwise and it will wind fine.

Uhm duh! Yeah that would be the simple answer.

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SHARKMAN

Well, that's simple enough. I'll post some pics of the Navi Heritage when it arrives on Wednesday

Everyone on here is great !

Another thread resurrection since I've been looking at Wolfs lately...



Yes. This is a feature of the Wolf 2.7s which can confuse. Ie 650 CW, or 650 CCW, are exactly that, 650 TPD one way or the other. But if you, ahem, swing both ways, on these models you double it: so 650 bi-directional = 650 in each direction - total 1300 TPD.

This would confuse anyone with some of the earlier Wolfs, since the TPD total on those was the same whether CW, CCW, or BD.



Therefore, for a Navi which should get 650 bi-dir, 300 or, yes, 350 TPD bi-dir would be the setting.

Are you sure about that? While the industry is hardly rife with standards, 650 bi-directional for anyone else means 325 in each direction. I always think that bi-directional settings are irrelevant anyway as it really means either direction works so you don't need a separate winder setting.

Bi-directional always seems irrelevant to me, too. I've always assumed it's just a feature brands like to boast rather than anything mechanically optimal.

But yes - re the oddity of the bi-directional TPD calculation on a Wolf 2.7 module - I am sure. It seemed odd to me so I've double-checked. E.g.:

@
http://uk.wolfdesigns.com/watch-winders/viceroy-single

- it says: 'Rotation Options: New rotation setting options – from 300 to 1200 rotations. Double the TPD (Turns Per Day) if set Bi-directional.'

Possibly ambiguous. So I found:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyCV9HHcCrY

- where Mr Simon Wolf himself (at c.2:55) explains that on the bi-directional setting, "if you selected 900 turns per day for your setting, it actually will turn 900 clockwise and 900 anti-clockwise, for a total of 1800 turns per day".

And on another forum, via Google, @
http://forums.watchuseek.com/f423/wolf- ... 13306.html

- someone else seeking clarification says: "I confirmed with Wolf: for the 2.7, in bi-directional mode, the TPD setting is for each direction. so if u set for 300, you get 300 in each direction for total of 600".

I think it's counter-intuitive myself - indeed it differs from Wolf's older modules - hence thinking it might be helpful for anyone with a Wolf 2.7 to append a post to this old-ish thread.