Do You Really Need A Watch Winder? Yes Or No?

What's up, guys? I'm Brian Sacawa, you're watching He Spoke Style, and today we are talking about watch winders. [MUSIC] Watch winders. So the biggest question i get on this topic is: do I need a watch winder? The answer is that it depends. And it honestly depends on you. So what is a watch winder? Well, a watch winder is a device that is used to keep an automatic watch running when it is not being worn. Now what is an automatic watch? An automatic watch is a watch with a movement that is self-winding. Now inside there's an oscillating weight called a rotor. And as you wear the watch and move around, this causes the rotor to pivot and spin. That movement is then transferred to the mainspring of the watch which, as a result, winds the watch. Manual winding watches, as the name suggests, do not have this mechanism. You actually need to physically wind the watch to keep it powered. So if you have a manual winding watch, a watch winder is not going to help you out at all. But if your watch as an automatic movement, a watch winder could be for you. As the watch winder spins every so often, it keeps the rotor moving, which keeps the watch wound. Now back to the original question: do you need a watch winder? As I said, it depends. If you are someone who likes to set and forget, as they say, and rotate through a few different watches over a week or so, a watch winder could be a good idea. If you have a perpetual calendar with moon phase that you don't wear all the time, I would probably consider getting a watch winder. If you're someone who likes gadgets, a watch winder is definitely a good idea. But if you're someone who likes the actual act of winding and setting your watch, then maybe a watch winder is not for you. So I actually fall into that last category. I really love the experience of winding and setting my watch. However, I do have one watch that is kind of a pain and time-consuming to set, especially if it has not been running for a couple weeks or so. I'm talking about my Rolex GMT Master reference 1675. This watch has a date window, but it does not have a quick set for the date. So in order to change the date, I have to move the hands all the way around the dial to advance it one day. So if I'm going to have to advance it more than like just a few days, it really starts to take a good bit of time, which is annoying, especially if I want to wear the watch and I'm in a hurry to get out the door. So this watch made a watch winder sound like a very good idea to me. The watch winder I have here is by Barrington. It was generously sent to me by them to try out. Just to clarify, Barrington is not sponsoring this video and this is not a review. I just have not had enough experience with other watch winders to kind of put this one in perspective. But what I can say is that it does its job and that has made me very happy. I went away for a month and I did not bring my GMT Master. I left at home on the watch winder to kind of try it out and see if it would perform. And I can report that it did, indeed. And now I keep my GMT Master on it all the time. It's a very beautiful piece. I love the wood. And I also want to point out that on the back there are two different knobs here. One controls the rotation settings. You can set it to go clockwise, counter clockwise, or to alternate between the two, which is what I usually have it set to. And the other knob is to control the number of turns per day. So you can have it turn anywhere from 650 to 1950 times per day. You can use batteries, but I would recommend using a power adapter so you don't have to worry about the batteries ever running out. And you could connect multiple watch winders together if you want to just so you only have to use one power source. So there are other watch winders out there. The ones I am most familiar with are by Wolf. Again, I really don't have any experience with Wolf watch winders so I can't really compare. You can also get watch winders that will wind multiple watches at once. I've seen 2, 3, 4, 6, or even these like ridiculous 24 or 32-count cabinets, which retail anywhere between 18 to $25,000. Obviously, there must be a market for it. So, in conclusion, I can't answer the question of whether you need a watch winder. It's something that is definitely a personal choice and depends a lot on you. I'll put links to a few watch winders down below in the description, including this one right here by Barrington that I showed you guys here in this video. A couple from Wolf and I will also try to find some other brands that look decent as well. If you guys have recommendations, please leave those down in the comments for the benefit all. If you liked this video, thumbs up. Don't forget to subscribe to the channel. And until next time, thanks for watching and stay tailored.