Hi Craig,
I don't think there is a problem. I own two Caliber 12 equipped watches (Heuer and Breitling) and one Caliber 11 (a Hamilton very rarely worn). Since I rarely wear either Cal 12 two days in a row, I always wind the one I will wear approximately 35 times in the morning prior to putting it on. While 35 twists isn't enough to completely wind the main spring, the watch's automatic rotor will then fully wind the movement during the day due to wrist movement, provided I wear the watch at least 5 or 6 hours. Wind it less (say 20 twists) and you'll need to actively wear it longer that day to reach the main spring's winding capacity. If a Cal 12 movement is completely unwound I don't think it is reasonable to expect it to run after just a bit of jostling. That's never worked for me. I've always had to wind it a bit and then let wrist/arm movement take over the winding chore. The majority of automatic watches have an average power reserve of, say, 40-42 hours. If you don't wear it every day, you're going to have to supplement the auto wind mechanism with manual winding every day you don't wear it. I think a bit of jostling is like trying to start a car with just a pint of gas in the tank. It may start but it won't run very long until you put more fuel in the tank!
Steve
: I have worked on a lot of cal 11 or 12 movements in the past but I
: rarely wear any of them (crown is on the wrong side - right?),
: so I have a question about the winding of this movement (cal 11
: in this case). This may have been covered here before but I have
: not seen it. I have always given the crown a couple of twists to
: get it started and it will keep running as long as I am wearing
: it.
: I customer recently contacted me and said - "The watch will
: not run as an automatic. That is it fails to run more then 15-20
: seconds when it is gently shaken and rocked back and forth. It
: does however run when manually wound. What can be done to
: correct this."
: I told him to manually wind it a few turns and it should keep
: running if worn. I did check the micro rotor operation when I
: serviced it and it was working. I said I would post the question
: to others who are more familiar than I about use of this
: movement on a regular basis. Thanks for your input. Craig
