Comments:
winding my 5120
I usually wind my 5120 between 15-20 times. I'm not getting anywhere near 48 hours of power reserve. Am i winding enough? Can this watch be overwound?
Your 5120 is having cal. 240
and it's an automatic watch. the idea is that the watch gets it power when you wear it on your wrist. These 10-20 turns are enough to get the movement started before you put the watch on time and to your wrist.
Best, Kari
power reserve
isn't the concept of power reserve that u can lay the watch down and it will keep running for up to 48 hours? I took mine off yesterday at 1pm. It stopped 9 hours later. Does winding it more increase the power reserve?
You are not the only person who has experienced
this problem. Patek recommends winding the watch just enough to get it going and your wearing it regularly should wind the watch completely.... but you have to wear it enough to wind the mainspring. Simply putting it on and changing channels with the remote will not do the trick.
That being said, there are some folks more active than others and have no issues with the watch stopping because their lifestyle has sufficiently wound the mainspring but there are some folks who just aren't as active and as a result have issues with what they believe to be low power reserve.
You can't increase the power reserve (it is what it is, 40 hrs, 44 hrs, etc) by winding, but you can fully wind the watch manually which would probably require 30-40 turns and increase the reserve compared to what you have been doing previously. If you do that and leave the watch alone, then you can determine if your watch is not holding a full wind.
Twenty years ago, I had folks really having a difficult time keeping their watches going (remember at that time, a lot of Patek owners were older rather than younger and not so active) and Patek addressed the issue by making the automatic winding more efficient. When that occurred, they began to enclose a note with each watch recommending to only wind the watch 5-10 times only because excessive winding would accelerate the wear on the gear used to increase the winding efficiency and the watch would begin to have increased service issues relating to over-winding the watch manually.
It may be worth a trial run to see the results.
Hope this helps.
That being said, there are some folks more active than others and have no issues with the watch stopping because their lifestyle has sufficiently wound the mainspring but there are some folks who just aren't as active and as a result have issues with what they believe to be low power reserve.
You can't increase the power reserve (it is what it is, 40 hrs, 44 hrs, etc) by winding, but you can fully wind the watch manually which would probably require 30-40 turns and increase the reserve compared to what you have been doing previously. If you do that and leave the watch alone, then you can determine if your watch is not holding a full wind.
Twenty years ago, I had folks really having a difficult time keeping their watches going (remember at that time, a lot of Patek owners were older rather than younger and not so active) and Patek addressed the issue by making the automatic winding more efficient. When that occurred, they began to enclose a note with each watch recommending to only wind the watch 5-10 times only because excessive winding would accelerate the wear on the gear used to increase the winding efficiency and the watch would begin to have increased service issues relating to over-winding the watch manually.
It may be worth a trial run to see the results.
Hope this helps.
Patek's cal 240
has a power reserve of maximum 48 hours. This means that when the watch is fully wound, it will run something between 36 and 48 hours. But 10-20 turns from the crown is not enough to wound the watch fully.
Best, Kari
Just wearing is fine.
For autos just wind it enough to get it going, and regular activities with the watch should wind it up nicely.
That is assuming you don't keep your wrist at one position throughout the day, of course.
That is assuming you don't keep your wrist at one position throughout the day, of course.