# Watch winder recommendations - Entry level



## fransiscus

Hi Guys,

I'm looking for an entry level watch winder (not too expensive). I'm looking to find one that can accomodate 3 watches. I was looking at EBay

Luxury Solid Watch Winder Automatic Compartment 4 Watch Glass Display Case black | eBay

But I'm not sure whether the quality of the winder is important or not. Well first of all I want to make sure the winder is not more expensive than the watch itself 

Thank you


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## Nokie

You usually get what you pay for in winder, especially off eBay, so shop carefully and shop around. Google is your friend. 

You can find some decent Brookstone winders on sale once in awhile. 

Wolf and Heiden are other good brands. 

IMHO, stay away from the super cheap stuff because they do not last and some have very poor wiring.


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## StufflerMike

With these programmable timer function I'd pass on this one.

Programable timer fuction
1. Auto rotate 33 second , rest 12 minutes
2. Auto rotate 10 minutes , rest 90 minutes
3. Auto rotate 30 minnutes , rest 3 hours
4. Auto rotate 1 hour , rest 3 hours

You should be able to programm cw, ccw, and both (bidirectional) depending on the turns per day your watch needs. That's what you need to find out first. This forum is studded with recommendations so just flick through.


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## cheoah

I like my Wolf winder I bought used on eBay. Does all the things mentioned above. Just changed from 650 bidirectional to 800 ccw for my GO.


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## drawman623

I have a pair of Wolf winders (2 turret each) and they have functioned well for the last couple years. They also look beautiful. If I had a criticism, it would be that they are loud. At least loud enough to hear that they are turning.

I bought a 3 head Orbita with rotorwind capacity and feel that is the best possible option. Silent, beautiful, reliable.

Spend it once and buy quality.


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## fransiscus

Thank you guys for the feedback, I will look into wolf brand


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## jimf

I would not recommend a winder...I would rather reset regularly than cause additional wear with a winder.


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## fransiscus

What do you mean by reset?as just let it die and set the time again?


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## samima

Interested on this also, as planning to get the winder, because usage is normally once/twice per week. So is it better to let the watch die or put it on winder? Re-setting has not been an issue.

Sent from my XT1068 using Tapatalk


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## jimf

yes, correct, just set the time each time I wear it if it runs down.


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## MaDTempo

Important to consider that either "method" (winder vs run-down) puts wear on the movement. On a winder, the movement is always running so the wheels/gears/ arbors are always in motion. Of course, this is how they were designed (without us WISes in mind who have multiple autos in rotation) so at most your watch is experiencing the wear it was intended to and you'll need to service more often tahn if it were sitting on the dresser with the mainspring completely spent. how long do you let one sit before wearing? If you're reseting every few days then there's increased stress on the crown/keyless works which wasn't necessarily designed for daily winding on an auto. If you have a screw-down crown, at minimum, adds extra nuisance. The way i see it, if you're letting the watch sit up to 60 days (similar to having to adjust after a 30-day month) then probably fine to just let run down and skip the winder. Otherwise a winder seems to make sense especially if you have a perpetual date function (would that i had the cash flow for such a luxury). 

Of course Im not a watchmaker so welcome to anyone more educated correcting my misconceptions


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## Camera Bill

I have the Brookstone quad winder. 
Nice unit but one of the motors crapped out after the warranty expired.


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## Neek

I had originally bought a cheap winder through eBay. 3 motors with two slots on each. Motors were quite loud even with the top closed. Within months the slots started peeling and less than a year down the road one motor eventually broke. I bit the bullet and got a Wolf 6 motor and it is exponentially better.


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## southernsurfer

Wolf Heritage 270002 is what keeps my Omega PO happy


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## jimf

I talked to my watchmaker about it...he suggested not getting one due to the extra wear. I would say even once a week, just let it wind down. I tend to wear watches for a week and then not maybe for a month or two, while I rotate through watches.


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## TigerUK

Do you just have 3 watches? or 3 watches on rotation that you need a winder for 3 only?

I have 4 watches and bought a quad winder, It was nice at first but then I regretted it. It takes up a hell of a lot of room. They are BIG


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## TigerUK

to be honest, I am happy with my £75 chinese watch winder for now. That is because my watch collection is worth


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## TigerUK

to be honest, I am happy with my £75 chinese watch winder for now. That is because my watch collection is worth <£1000 and cannot justify such a big expense on a winder.

Having said that I really dislike how some people who have the means are so cheap. There's a youtuber who owns watches that are north of £10K EACH, a few watches with £20K+ But he's so cheap he wears it with ebay nato straps and has the same watch winder as me. I think for some people owning expensive watches means so much to them that they are living beyond their means. They own such expensive watches but then ..... and whine about the servicing costs and cost of OEM straps and how it's better to buy a hirsh. If you own a breitling, the goddamn spend $150 on their leather straps dont whine about it and buy a $30 leather strap from hirsch.


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## Pete B.

I have about 24 mechanical watches in rotation, so a winder is a must. Especially since some of them have complications such as dual time and moonphase, where setting them can be a pain! I rarely put my "simple" dress watches on a winder.

I have used a lot of winders and, frankly, they can be hit and miss. Right now I just have an $ 80 Chinese quad winder which has been doing the job for over a year.


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## Iowa 73

I just bought a JQueen quad from Amazon. We'll see how it holds up. Seems pretty nice now.


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## Tinng321

Iowa 73 said:


> I just bought a JQueen quad from Amazon. We'll see how it holds up. Seems pretty nice now.


I am thinking of getting a JQueen too. They have very good reviews. How's the quality? My concern is that they look the same as those cheaper ones on ebay. So I'm not sure if they worth the extra $$.


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## Pete B.

Tinng321 said:


> I am thinking of getting a JQueen too. They have very good reviews. How's the quality? My concern is that they look the same as those cheaper ones on ebay. So I'm not sure if they worth the extra $$.


The difference, if any, will be in the motor quality. That should translate into long service and quiet operation. However, as I said, this can be hit and miss. Lately I am just using a cheap 4+6 quad winder and it does the job well, and is very quiet.


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## 191145

I have gone through a lot of winders over the past 10 plus years. Any economy model I have bought was very noisy and quit working after time. I ended up purchasing a Rotolution winder 4 head. Each head is independently programmed using a laptop and a printer cable to program TPD and rotation direction. 
The winder cost about $1400.00USD and it was worth it. It is over 8 years old and is still running silent.

The bad news is Rotolution is out of busyness. If I were to purchase another one it would be an Orbita. I am willing to spend the money on a good winder because it is winding thousands of dollars worth of watches. I always like the Orbita Tourbillon 3. 

Now that I am retired I have the time to manually wind the timepieces once a month and rotate through the ones I wear. When I was working I like the ease of grabbing a different timepiece out of the winder and putting it on and not having to adjust it.
I do not believe there is a good entry level winder that is going to be worth your hard earned money. 
The Orbita website has a great data base that list just about every timepiece, what movement is in it and what the recommended turns per day and the rotation. 
Here is a link to there data base. It does not show any winders for sale so I think it is okay to post the link. It is for information only.
Orbita - DatabaseBr-Bz


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## sphynx88

fransiscus said:


> Hi Guys,
> 
> I'm looking for an entry level watch winder (not too expensive). I'm looking to find one that can accomodate 3 watches. I was looking at EBay
> 
> Luxury Solid Watch Winder Automatic Compartment 4 Watch Glass Display Case black | eBay
> 
> But I'm not sure whether the quality of the winder is important or not. Well first of all I want to make sure the winder is not more expensive than the watch itself
> 
> Thank you


http://m.ebay.com/itm/XTELARY-Luxur...3Aafb1f6f11590a2a41949f7e6ffb8e3c2%7Ciid%3A14

This is the brand I got and is pretty solid. It's quiet and finished really well unlike the other super cheap ones. I got the bigger one but the quality is good. Note that these probably aren't accurate in terms of turns per day. They'll go around 650 tpd based off my calcs you you have to be sure to rest them from time to time and definitely use the watches. With 650 it will underwind most likely so you have to wear them but better to underwind than over wind in my opinion.

I use an app called WatchTracker from iOS as well and track the time of the watches I wear. It makes it so that I know if I'm over winding a watch. I get to know their daily +\- in time. Hope that helps!










Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## tecbarrera

I bought the 4 watch version of that Xtelary. Extremely quiet and seems to run well. Just have to learn more about which settings to use for daily use, as I have all 4 watch slots in rotation.


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## agabriel2

I've had a Heiden Quad Watch Winder in Black Leather from Amazon for the last few years. It has been great.


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## JCinPA

Iowa 73 said:


> I just bought a JQueen quad from Amazon. We'll see how it holds up. Seems pretty nice now.


I just received a JQUEEN double from Amazon today. I agree, is seems very nice now, and has good ratings on Amazon.

While January to April is hardly long term, I'm curious to know if you are still happy with it. Thanks, in advance!


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## Cliffio

I've also looked on amazon and have seen the JQueen ones as well as the Versa brand. Does anyone have experience with a Versa watch winder?

Cliff


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## ancanclin

I agree with the sentiment that you get what you pay for. I have bought a number of cheap winders over the years. They seem to last 6-12 months and then have problems. In most cases getting someone to honor a warranty can be difficult.


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## Watchguy_82

I have Timetutelary winder for double watch, but they have also bigger models. I have been satisfied for that. Motors are quiet and it has been working very reliable. I bought mine from timemachine.fi/en


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## WatchReviewGuy

Barrington makes some very nice quality winders at an affordable price point. They have single winder, double etc... Have a look at this review: https://www.watchreviewblog.com/barrington-single-watch-winder-review/


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## doubleosullivan

WatchReviewGuy said:


> Barrington makes some very nice quality winders at an affordable price point. They have single winder, double etc... Have a look at this review: https://www.watchreviewblog.com/barrington-single-watch-winder-review/


Just ordered a barrington single last week. I'll let you know how it works. I like the fact you can daisy chain multiple single ones together and get a dual or quad case. 
I don't like the fact it ships from England and I have to wait 2 weeks!!!!


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## Robert Nalbandov

Joma has a good selection of watch winders:

https://www.jomashop.com/watch-winders.html


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## Perseverence

Versa.

Cheapest winders that you can set each watches turn and TPD separately.

https://www.amazon.com/Versa-Quad-W...rd_wg=40xua&psc=1&refRID=C8QT0HW0Z7FPQ1NG4N4J


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## doubleosullivan

Check out barrington watch winders. I got single winder a couple weeks ago and love it. They Also sell cases for multiple single winders if you buy more than one throughout the years.


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## mj421

when it comes to winders, like anything else in life, cheapest is not always best.
Orbita, in my experience, makes the most beautiful and functional, but very costly, winders.
Best bet for the buck, a used (almost always new) Wolf Winder on Amazon.


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## pro2zon

I have a single watch Wolf winder and a double Watch winder, they have booth been great. I just wish i had put electrical into my closet where i would like to keep them.


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## Watchguy_82

Time Tutelary watches winders are also good value for the money. You can find them sale in Ebay. I own this similar winder which I have been satisfied. Link!


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## vespacar

I'm staying cheap for now. I have one Versa, which is quite and works well for now. My other is a WatchTender Solo. Found the WatchTender on Ebay and I'm happy with the build, I ordered another. The Wi-Fi part intrigued me. Now if someone could develop an app for this winder it would be perfect.

WatchTender SOLO WiFi Watch Winder - Black Cherry Gloss | eBay

Cheers,
Tross


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## tas1911

I just purchased a 8 watch Xtelary, and it seems to be working fine. Only concern I have, is the extreme pressure the pillow type holders exert on my watches straps and bands. If I remove the outer layer of the pillow, the watches are to loose and would eventually fall out.

Anyone have any experience with this concern?


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## Sherrytang

when i browse amazon, i see the chiyoda watch winder in black, it seems great


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