With renewed interest in mechanical watches, there is currently no shortage of automatic watch winders in the market. However, winders for manually wound watches are few and far between. The reason for this is simple: manually wound watches typically do not have a safety clutch mechanism. This makes it possible for automatic winders to overwind the watch, thus breaking it. To overcome this would therefore require complex sensors and mechanisms, which is exactly what Buben & Zorweg’s latest watch winder has.
The Time Mover Handwound is Austria-based Buben & Zorweg’s latest automatic watch winder and was specifically designed for manually wound watches. The Time Mover Handwound features a pair of rubber-coated rollers to grasp and wind the crown, much like how owners would with their thumbs and fingers. In addition, Buben & Zorweg says that the rubber used for the rollers was specially developed so that they would grip the crown with the, and we quote, “sensitivity of careful fingertips.”
To prevent overwinding, the Time Mover Handwound is equipped with advanced sensors which monitor changes in spring tension, and automatically stops winding when it senses that tension has reached an “ideal point”. This “ideal point” as we have learned, is just around half the power reserve.
But how does it know, you may wonder. Well, despite being equipped with state-of-the-art sensors, the Time Mover Handwound does require a bit of calibration before it can work properly. Firstly, owners need to input the power reserve of the watch so that the winder knows roughly how much winding is required to achieve maximum power reserve. Thereafter, it will wind the watch fully and then stop to allow it to run down to half its power reserve. It will then rewind the watch to maximum to accurately determine just how much winding is required to keep the watch at full and half wound states. Over time, it will accurately and reliably keep the watch at around 50% of its power reserve so as not to keep too much tension on the mainspring. There is also a “speed winding mode” that winds the watch quickly, should owners decide to want to wear the watch out.
The Time Mover Handwound can be used with practically any manually wound watch thanks to its laterally and diagonally adjustable watch cushion, so it does not matter if the crown is not at the standard three o’clock position. Finally, the Time Mover Handwound can be powered by both the mains or battery and is available in Croco and Ebony Grigio finish. buben-zorweg.com
