Can you manually wind an automatic movement?

Vaer Watches Updated by Vaer Watches

Nearly all automatic movements also have a manual winding function - including all Vaer automatic models.

Both our USA assembled automatics (powered by the Japanese Miyota 9015/9039) and our Swiss made variants (ETA 2824/Sellita SW200) use kinetic energy to power the watch. If your watch is not worn for around 2 days (our power reserves vary from 38 to 42 hours), it will stop keeping time.

To recharge the mainspring after resetting the time, you can either rely on the natural movement of your wrist, or you can give it a ‘full charge’ by manually winding it. To wind the watch, unscrew the crown from the default locked position until it is released from the screw-down threading. Rather than pull the crown out to change the time or date, leave the crown in its default unscrewed position. From here, rotate the crown clockwise to wind the movement. You should feel a slight resistance as the spring is engaged and you will notice the second hand will begin to move.

If the watch's power reserve is at zero, wind the crown around 20-30 times to fully charge the spring.

"While hand-winding an automatic is fairly unneccessary as it can be re-started by simply moving the watch, it's a fun exercise and is also a good practice of the maintenance required for ownership of a fully manual watch like the Vaer A12 Dirty Dozen."

- Reagan Cook, Vaer Co-Founder

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