# To wind or not to wind a Breitling



## HDDeuce06 (Nov 10, 2014)

I rotate my SuperOcean 44 every few days with my other watches and generally it's dead when I go to put it on again.

So my question is should I be winding it every night?

I tried researching it online but there are so many conflicting opinions... some websites say you should.
Others say you shouldn't if it's any variant of an ETA 2824 because you prematurely wear out the gears
Other say you shouldn't wind any automatic watch daily
Some say you should use a watch winder.... others say don't use a winder.
and lastly you shouldn't wind any watch with a screw down crown daily because you strip or wear out the threads

So now I am thoroughly confused... :-/


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## SnapIT (Apr 29, 2005)

Wind your watch. If it breaks you'll give a watchmaker a job. 
Wind the watch you're going to rest when you switch them. That should give you about 40-42 hours of reserve in the movement when you set it down. If it rests for longer and or stops before you get back to it, refer to instruction #1.


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## CaptRimmer (Dec 30, 2008)

I am thoroughly in the boat of not winding. I switch between my B1, SA and a Casio. I leave the SA to stop and reset the time/date when I wear it again, be it a couple of days or a couple of weeks. My train of thought is that things have a life expectancy. The more you use it, the quicker it'll wear out (to a certain extent and I'm aware that some things need to move/work). So when I'm not wearing the SA, it goes into hibernation. It's eleven years old, with one service under it's belt and still keeps fantastic time. Eventually it will wear out and something will go pop but I'll send it in to Breitling and they'll do a perfect job....ready for another decade or two of enjoyment.
Others may do it differently and it's just my 2p worth.
Cheers,
Andy


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## hogwldfltr (Sep 2, 2012)

I will leave watches on a winder if they have a complication that I'm too lazy to deal with. Most of mine fit in that category. In particular I leave my no dates off the winder with out thinking about it. You might have better luck getting consensus regarding the nature of God (just mentioning because this topic is almost religious in nature for many).


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## fjcamry (Aug 13, 2012)

I don't wind my breitlings unless I'm going to wear them.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## helderberg (Mar 4, 2007)

I like to let my watches run out and wind them when I wear them also. I have a pair of watch winders that I used before but I feel, like the Capt, that why put wear on the caliber if you do not have to. That said, I do try to wear them at least one 48hr run a month and run the chrono for at least 12hr of time to keep the oils up and working. This probably doesn't make a bit of difference but it makes me feel better. 
Be safe, Frank.


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## little big feather (Mar 6, 2013)

I use winders.....If you wore it everyday, would it not always be wound?
Of course it would. Does the watch Mfg. suggest you only wear it X number of days and then allow it to wind down? 
No, they don't. Winders do not hurt a watch, winding by hand may....I choose a winder, it's only good common sense to do so.


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## Liran1984 (Apr 21, 2014)

I believe in the long run more damage is done when winding by hand than leaving it on the winder. I used to wind my omega by hand, till I f'd up the crown screwing it back in one morning. Same thing with my Breitling, The date wheel is very sensitive to the position of the hour hand when setting. This is something that can easily be overlooked as happened to me the first time I had to reset the date while on vacation (no winder to leave it in). When speaking to my AD he told me that the hour hand should be at 7:30 when setting the date. Again things can easily get damaged. Just my two cents.


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## Roth517 (Jun 29, 2007)

Liran1984 said:


> I believe in the long run more damage is done when winding by hand than leaving it on the winder. I used to wind my omega by hand, till I f'd up the crown screwing it back in one morning. Same thing with my Breitling, The date wheel is very sensitive to the position of the hour hand when setting. This is something that can easily be overlooked as happened to me the first time I had to reset the date while on vacation (no winder to leave it in). When speaking to my AD he told me that the hour hand should be at 7:30 when setting the date. Again things can easily get damaged. Just my two cents.


The date wheel _can _get damaged when setting the date, but not _easily_. Do what the AD said (and/or what numerous watch sites and YouTube videos say) and set the time to 6:00 or so before setting the date. There, you won't damage the date wheel.

As to wind or not, I figure I don't leave my car running in the garage when I'm not using it, so it's fine to let the watch run down and eventually stop if I'm not wearing it. It's not like I'm letting it sit for years on end and internal parts may lose their lube or something. At most, my Seawolf sits idle for a couple/few days while it's out of rotation. If it winds out, so be it; it takes all of one minute to wind it and synch it with one of my others.


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## DeMontre (Mar 21, 2014)

Don't wind when off your wrists and don't use a winder. Let the watch run down if you are not using it. There's no harm in resting a watch and it's not complicated to reset the next time you do wear it.


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