Reply To: Winding up an automatic watch.

[c.kelly]

Hi,
Thanks Bob. One other thing I might want to say on dealing with automatic mainspring is that the power let down operation is dependant upon the auto wind up device being removed. On all the ones I have worked on the auto device will only wind up and will not go backwards. So I don’t confuse anybody they will wind no matter which way rotor turns because of the reversing gear but if you just try to turn winding gear on auto device itself it will only go in direction of wind. This means the auto device itself will act as the click spring and prevent you from letting down power. Not sure if that is the way all auto watches work but I just tore down one last week because rotor axle was broken and when I put it back together thats the way it worked. Double checked against one I hadn’t touched and thats the way it works as well. Reasons I mention this is the videos don’t deal with automatics and if you don’t know you might try to let down power and when you release click spring and when nothing happens you might assume power has been let off which could cause you some problems when you then remove barrel. That goes back to my theory of spring being stuck, if you removed barrel bridge while there was still power left spring would have hit outside wall pretty hard which could have caused it to now be stuck there because of gum or because barrel cap seperated slightly and has it caught. I guess sometimes you have to remove auto device just to get to barrel but on the Omegas I have been working on you don’t.
I’m glad to see someone besides me working on automatics. I really enjoy the extra challenge.
Charles