The Breitling Watch Source Forums

It was all so easy when I just had my Rolex - but now I've got three automatic watches, I would like to find a small gadget to wind them up when I'm not wearing them.

The only problem is there here in Europe all I've found are semi-professional 'machines' costing upwards of 900 €uros. I followed a link to a North American site and these things were available for less than 50 US$. (I should mention that North American vendors don't seem keen to sell to us here in Europe?!)

Does anyone out there have any info please?

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Navitimer World, Evo, Blacksteel, Avenger
Loads of Panerai
Submariner Date, GMT Master llc

I wouldn't buy a professional winder, as they are not nice looking and some can be noisy. I own several watchwinders, and have owned yet more others in the past. Currently I am running 2 Orbita Sparta Deluxe single winders, and 2 Rapport Cherry Duo winders. I've also had different incarnations of the Sparta, the Orbita Geneva, Steinhausen/Cheap Chinese Winders, and also seen several in action such as the Wolf Designs and Orbita Bellino.

Not all winders are created equal.

You need to decide a few things when buying a winder... How quiet does it need to be? How many watches does it need to wind? Does it need to be Battery or AC Operated or both? and How much control over the directionality do I need?

Some of the more popular brands out there right now are Orbita, Wolf Designs, Scatola del Tempo, Eilux, and Rapport. On ebay however, there has been a large number of chinese made cheap watch winders available. I have bought some of these... and in my experience, there has always been problems with them. They all have cheap wood... very thin, and poorly finished on the inside, and lighter than you'd expect. Some are very noisy (however expensive winders aren't always quiet either!) and some have inferior pillow/mounts for the watches.. one of the chinese units I purchased couldn't fit my watches on them because my wrists are too small!

I really do like the Orbita watchwinders out there, but I've encountered many noisy models. A lot of sellers are selling outdated old stock of Orbita winders that generate a lot of noise... the Geneva range and the older Spartas can be noisy. They Spartas aren't so bad since they only make noise for about 5 seconds every 10-15 minutes, however the Genevas can grind on for 10-15 minutes at a time!

The Wolf Designs winders are among my favourites. They are programmable, and they are quiet. They even store settings! They are however expensive. If you want a good, quiet winder on a budget, I would recommend Eilux or Rapport. They don't have quite as many programmable options, but the are very well made, and they are quiet, and they are of good quality. Eilux in particular is extremely quiet.

Make sure that you check what direction your watch winds in. If it is a Breitling that is listed on this site, going to the watch model page will tell you which direction the watch needs to be wound in on a watch winder. The Breitling Caliber 13 in particular on winds one direction, and it is very common. It needs to be wound a bit more than bi-directional winding movements in order to stay fully wound, so keep that in mind. Orbita's website also has information on just about all watches and the direction of winding: http://www.orbita.net/pages/17100.htm

Hope this helps at least a little bit. I'm going to be putting up a review seciton on the website eventually that will have reviews on the different winders I have owned too.

Thanks Admin - this is the reason I joined the forum - INFORMATION - many thanks for your suggestions - I'll start looking now!

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Navitimer World, Evo, Blacksteel, Avenger
Loads of Panerai
Submariner Date, GMT Master llc

Sportback,

What was the final solution to your winder decision?

I am chrono and Breitling newbie, I am currently winding it manually every Thursday. As a very hands-on IT tech, I do not dare wear my Ling Mon-Thurs at work. Generally my fiance and I go out for drinks Thursday evening, so it sits in it's case from Sunday evening until Thursday afternoon.

I am considering buying a winder myself. Probably a 2-watch model, since I have now been bitten by the Breitling bug. Disturbingly so actually.

Any comments much appreciated

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2007 Superocean

I own a winder made by ERS. It holds four watches, and it was very reasonably priced. It has a nice finish, and is very quiet. It has three settings, a left, a right and an alternating left-right wind. It came with a display case, and a polishing cloth. I wouldn't be afraid to recommend this winder.

~Brian

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Breitling Super Avenger
Fortis Flieger Chronograph
Rolex Submariner Date

Just to add my 2 pence worth to this one......

I've owned 4 watch winders in the past. One by Seinhauser, two by Rapport, and one by Official Time.

The Seinhauser one was really noisy and IMO rotated far too fast, so I didn't keep it long. Then I moved onto a Rapport twin which is fine, apart from the fact that it started to get a little noisy after 6 month of ownership, but as i wanted a quad winder by that point I did nothing about it and just sold it to buy a Rapport quad. This one initially was OK, but then also started to get a little noisy and then stop working all together! So back to the jewellers it went. I came back fixed (but still a little noisy) but for the money (IMHO) I really don't think they are worth it.

I then saw my mate's new winder by a company called Official Time. When he said the name I thought (as a few of you may be at this point), "cheap chinese rubbish" (they are actually made in Hong Kong), but the finish and quality really surprised me. The one he had was a 6 way with a glass front and the only thing that put me off was the pads that held the watches as they were not of the soft cushion variety, so didn't allow much in the way of adjustment for different wrist sizes. Anyway, Official Time have more recently bought out a new range that in terms of design are very, VERY similar to Rapport. i.e. closed fronts (no glass) and a soft cushion arrangement inside for the watch. I decided to take the plunge and bought a 6 way from eBay for a price that was less than that of Rapport twin. (Super value!) And so far it has been absolutely FANTASTIC!

Mine is in a highly laquered grey oak (although they do a range of colours), which looks so much more modern and contempory than the usual mahogany or walnut. The finish is superb, and the movement inside is super-quiet even with all 6 running. Each cushion is independently programmable and the cycles are nice and steady. I have no complaints with it at all, and I would now find the cost of a Rapport totally impossible to justify.

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Driver8

Site Moderator

I have also had slightly more noise in my rapports as time has gone by, but there is a Rapport distributor and assembler in Canada here that has a 1-800 number i Call.. any time i have any problems I call and they send me any parts to fix them up. But I have been eyeing those Official Time ones.. I just wish their colors were more traditional!

How long have you had the Official Time? I may take the plunge and get one myself, I am needing more winders!

Funnily enough I actually really like the non-traditional colours! Although I have been fairly understated and gone with their grey version instead of the yellows, greens and ( ) bright orange! (Incidentally they do a slightly more traditional brown lacquer finish too).

I've had mine a good few months now - struggling to remember exactly when I bought it, but I think it was around 4 or 5 months ago - certainly less than a year. I guess it's still fairly early days, but mine is still quieter than my Rapports were at a similar age.

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Driver8

Site Moderator

When I started this thread in March I had three automatic watches, and it seemed perfectly reasonable to me to buy a simple winder.

I bought an Eilux which works really well, extremely quiet and I've yet to change the battery.

The only problem is that we're now in September, I have 10 automatic watches...I think I'm going to need a REALLY big winder!!

Even more strange - I wear, on a day to day basis, the only watch I own that has to be wound by hand...

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Navitimer World, Evo, Blacksteel, Avenger
Loads of Panerai
Submariner Date, GMT Master llc

wow in 5 months you gained 7 watches?

Not just 7 watches, 7 verrrry nice watches! Bastid!

I've probably gotten at least that many new watches but I've sold a bunch too... and the ones i've gotten aren't nearly as expensive!

At the rate you're going, you're going to need this : http://www.watchcases.com/24wawiorbe.html

Save your money, it's only $34,495.00 USD.



~Brian

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Breitling Super Avenger
Fortis Flieger Chronograph
Rolex Submariner Date

Why dare not wear it? For the price you paid, you must like it. So enjoy it! I wear mine every day although I am a hands on technician myself. You know what I do? I just wear a wrist band over it to avoid scratches. But then I take it off during breaks and I see the bling again.

Life's too short ... wear that Ling!

If I may suggest for those of you that want a decent performing yet economical Double Winder. The two Garinin I have are whisper quiet. You can read my review here,

http://blog.breitlingsource.com/2007/05/22/review-garinin-dual-tower-watch-winder/

I'm waiting on my third Garinin Double winder now.

Norman

I hope one has a good alarm system and maybe a vault to lock up those babys. Just that watch winder would need its own Vault.