Are watch winders necessary?

This is an interesting question with several answers. Firstly we should ask: Do you wear your watch all the time, day and night? If the answer is yes,  then we would say that you probably don’t need a watch winder. However, should you take off your watch at night or when sleeping, then the benefits of a watch winder will come into their own.

A simple explanation of how they work is as follows, it rotates the watch, simulating the everyday rotation as if the watch is on the wrist, this in turn agitates the rotor within the movement, thus keeping the mainspring ‘charged’ and ultimately the watch ticking. A charged mainspring is a happy mainspring! Additionally, this will enable the watch to keep accurate time whereas as a depleted mainspring will speed up or slow down and generally keep poor time.

Furthermore, by keeping the watch wound, it will be ready to take and wear without resetting. You may find that this can be a slow and sometimes arduous task especially when accounting for pieces with more complications such as moon-phases, annual or perpetual calendars to mention but a few.

Similarly,  one might consider a watch winder a necessity should you be a collector someone that owns more than one watch. Obviously, we  only tend to wear one watch at a time, so keeping the others wound while not being worn becomes something of a must!