zOwie Omega Discussion Forum

: Was just curious, how does a watch winder work?
: Does it simply spin or rock back and forth

Basically, yes.

: Is it possible to just make one
: yourself if it is just a spinning motion? I
: can't see spending sooo much money on an
: auto winder,

Depends on how much time you have and how much you are willing to risk your watches. The winders you buy have been tested to make sure they don't do harm to watches. The areas of concern are electromagnetic fields from the motors, excessive wear on the watch mechanisms safety clutch from excessive turning or unusual wear from the watch being turned for long durations in one single position/angle.

Obviously, the winding motion that a watch gets on your wrist is moederately random. Not consistent in speed, angle and direction like on a winder.

Sure, commercial winders are pretty expensive -- but that is mainly because they are small volume manufacture items. Each winder model is made in the hundreds or couple of thousand units a year. They don't get the economies of scale that mass-produced items like toasters that are made in the tens or hundreds of million units a year.