Question from DH re: Tag Heuer watch

[ohsomethingshiny]

DH was gifted a Tag Heuer Carrera Calibre 7 watch for Fathers Day from his loving wife. Here is his specific question:

“I was advised to wind it 3 turns every 2-3 days. I’ve done that but the watch has died several times since last weekends I am assuming I’m not winding it enough. I’m wondering if it’s possible to overwind it?”

Thanks for any input.

 

[OoohShiny]

Cailbre 7 is a brand new automatic watch, isn't it?

If it's stopping regularly, he's not moving enough to get power into the mainspring. Does he do a sedentary job?

An auto can be started up by placing it face-down in your palm and 'swirling' it anti-clockwise to get the rotor spinning and putting power into the mainspring. If he's having it stop by the end of the day, even while being active, I would say something is wrong.

3 turns is nothing though - only about 3 hours of power on a 6497 (handwind) movement, so likely to be similar on the Tag. He could try winding it (gently) 40 times? ETA 2836 and similar automatic movements have c.38hours of power reserve, so would likely need that number of turns. (I've never wound an auto that much, but the 56ish hour power reserve of a 6497 takes me about 56ish rolls of the crown in my fingers!)

He should be able to handwind it gently until he feels increased resistance or he hears a 'click' (which would be a clutch mechanism preventing over-winding or, er, it breaking lol)

I'm not familiar with that movement, though, and I always prefer to *not* wind auto watches - just seems to unduly increase risk of damage, when they should charge automatically on the wrist!

If a 'full charge' from handwinding doesn't give the stated hours of power reserve it's supposed to have, it's warranty time!

 

[ohsomethingshiny]

Thank you so much, @OoohShiny!!! He works in an office and sits at a desk, but he’s a marketing guy so he’s up and around a lot doing video and photo shoots too. He loves the watch (it’s gorgeous), but it’s quite annoying to have it quit so often.

I’ll pass on all of your information to him and hopefully your suggestions help. If not, we will take it in to have it checked.

Again, thanks so much for all the detail and info as well as the time to write it all out. You’ve been very kind and helpful!

 

[foxinsox]

I recently bought a vintage Tissot Antimagnetic hand wound watch and googled this slightly obsessively because I was terrified I’d break it by overwinding it. It turns out that it’s actually really easy to know when you’ve wound it enough because it goes from being smooth and easy to wind to being stiff.
Even though his is automatic, it may still need winding. So pull the crown out gently and wind it forward until it stops winding smoothly. If even that doesn’t have the watch keeping perfect time, it probably needs to be looked at.
I wind mine fully when I first put it on for the day but it will run for nearly 2 days before running slow. Apparently it’s not so good to let them wind down fully though - better for the mainspring to always be in the first part of the coil or something.

 

[ohsomethingshiny]

@foxinsox Thank you so much for weighing in. He went ahead this morning and wound it up. Since he’s only had it a week, I don’t think it had yet to be fully wound as he was only doing 2-3 times around. Hopefully this will do this trick and it’ll stay wound with activity.

 

[OoohShiny]

Cool, let us know how it goes!

TBH I'm quite surprised it's not winding up with even just moderately active wear, but perhaps he just needs an active weekend between each quite sedentary week to wind it right up and then top it up enough during the week!

See how it goes

You/he could consider buying a watchwinder - they rotate the watch to keep it wound while not on the wrist!

 

[ohsomethingshiny]

UPDATE: My husband said that he is no longer having issues with his new watch stopping and the additional winding seems to have done the trick. Thank you, @OoohShiny and @foxinsox!!!

 

[OoohShiny]

Excellent stuff

Now he can focus on whether it's meeting COSC specs and what way he should lay it down at night to reduce creep + or - lol

 

[foxinsox]

UPDATE: My husband said that he is no longer having issues with his new watch stopping and the additional winding seems to have done the trick. Thank you, @OoohShiny and @foxinsox!!!

Excellent! I wonder if it was just needing that full wind up first and then his daily activity keeps it going?

 

[ohsomethingshiny]

Excellent! I wonder if it was just needing that full wind up first and then his daily activity keeps it going?

That’s my impression. I think he was just nervous to attempt it since he was told only wind it 2-3 times. He didn’t want to cause damage by overwinding.

 

[ohsomethingshiny]

Excellent stuff

Now he can focus on whether it's meeting COSC specs and what way he should lay it down at night to reduce creep + or - lol

Oh boy, there’s MORE? LOL!

 

[OoohShiny]

Oh boy, there’s MORE? LOL!

Set it by an atomic clock or electronic online clock and then see how it creeps away from it - Chronometer specs (COSC) which you pay more for (because of the increased time spent regulating the movement) are +4/-6 seconds a day IIRC, which should be able to be kept under control even further by laying it down certain ways overnight!

Accuracy:
https://www.prestigetime.com/page.php?accuracy

Regulating:
https://forums.watchuseek.com/f23/regulating-watch-what-possition-resting-245217.html

 

[ohsomethingshiny]

Set it by an atomic clock or electronic online clock and then see how it creeps away from it - Chronometer specs (COSC) which you pay more for (because of the increased time spent regulating the movement) are +4/-6 seconds a day IIRC, which should be able to be kept under control even further by laying it down certain ways overnight!

Accuracy:
https://www.prestigetime.com/page.php?accuracy

Regulating:
https://forums.watchuseek.com/f23/regulating-watch-what-possition-resting-245217.html

Such a wealth of info. Thanks!!