Mechanical wristwatches employ spring wound motors for their motive power. Typically, such watches must be hand wound every two to three days to assure continuous operation. An advanced version of the mechanical wristwatch which employs a built-in rotary pendulum (rotor) to wind the spring motor; the rotary motion being generated by the random wrist movement of the user as he or she engages in their normal day-to-day activities while wearing the watch. Generally, the rotary pendulum mechanism swings through an arc of 60 to 120 degrees as the wearer works or walks and swings his or her arm. As long as the watch is worn, it runs continuously. The watch's spring motor stores sufficient energy to power the watch and keep perfect time. However, when unworn, after about forty-eight hours, the spring motor unwinds fully and the watch ceases to operate unless it is hand-wound periodically.

Most automatic watches not only keep time, they provide additional features or " complications" such as day and date (the calendar watch) or, in more sophisticated automatic watches; displays of month, year, leap-year, lunar phase, tide time, elapsed time, other time zone, etc, etc.. Naturally, each additional complication requires its own mechanism within the watch which also consumes spring power and further reduces the operating time between windings. All such watches, when fully unwound, must be reset in order to use them. At a minimum, just resetting the time, date and a day can be an annoying task. As the number of complications increases, so does the time and effort to completely reset the watch.

Frequently, owners of automatic watches have more than one watch. They may have a stainless steel watch which is used for sports events, swimming, diving, etc.. They may use another watch for normal daytime office or business activities and yet another for evening or formal social events (frequently, a gold watch). Clearly, the task of keeping multiple watches fully wound and set, ready to wear, can be formidable. Consequently, many multiple watch owners employ a Watchwinder to accomplish the task.

A Watchwinder is a powered device designed to keep an automatic watch fully wound, eliminating the need for manual rewinding and resetting. The watch mounted in the winding rotaries in one direction or the other, simulating the motion of the wearer's wrist when walking or working.

Tarrytown Jewelers can provide watch owners with this affordable, user friendly and elegant solution to the "winding problem". Our selection of watchwinders range from one unit to multiple watch holders, in leather or wood, with and without accessories. Winders are available with battery and/or electric outlet power.

For the full line of ORBITA Watchwinders check out their web sitewww.orbita.net. For information on our other Winding Boxes please give us a call or e-mail us at info@tarrytownjewelers.com.