WATCH POP

Just had my automatic Glycine restored and working again - after not used since 1981. I'm not sure how to best handle an automatic any more; I used to wear it as my every-moment watch but now share my wrist with others. My idea right now is to wear it as either my main casual watch or as one of two, meaning I would ideally wear it maybe evenings after work on work days and much of Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. Or alternate it with my other current casual watch. So - how long should I expect the Glycine to go without winding it?
I picked it up last week (after a five-month complex ordeal involving two watchmakers!), but it has finally been running well without new winding until this morning when I found it had stopped. Yesterday I wore it approximately five hours in the evening.
Shouldn't it go at least 24 hours without stopping if not worn? If so, I could get away with winding it once in the morning if I'm not wearing it that much. That's what I was doing with my last hand-wind 'til it broke and it worked out fine.
...as well as the condition of the movement and your level of activity. In good working condition a "normal" auto movement will give somewhere from 35 to 45 hours power reserve off a full wind. The thing with automatics is that you may not really know what state of wind the watch is in when you take it off. Is your normal daily wearing actually imparting a full wind to the movement, or something less? Until you get to know the watch you won't really be able to assess that. Some people are more active than others, and some movements wind more efficiently than others. That 5 hours you wore the watch may not have built up much wind depending on the factors I have mentioned.
You can gain a reasonable idea of the maxiumum power reserve available by fully manually winding the watch (40 to 50 turns should get you close) and then set it down (don't wear it) and note how long it takes to run down to a stop. That shows what the movement is capable of, but it won't tell you how efficiently the autowind system is working when you wear the watch.
If you are wearing the Glycine now & again rather than constantly it will likely wind-down and stop between wearings. That's pretty normal once you have a number of watches you like to wear. I find it necessary/useful with some of my automatics to manually wind them to get them going and then the autowind system will keep them wound as I wear them. Not all autos will build up a full wind from scratch, depending on the type of movement and your daily activity.
Paul. Thanks, Paul. Sounds like the automatic runs something like a hand-wind - should go about 36 hours but there is some relationship with movement (whileas a winder, I assume) should be less "tempermental" in that department). My hand-wind mechanical Cartier does not go a whole day and that's why it could use repair, but that's another story....
Anybody else?
...as a manual-wind movement with an auto-wind mechanism grafted onto it. It's not always that simple but the basics of the power train and escapement are the same in both types. (Many automatic movements will function quite well as manual-winds with the rotor and other auto-wind parts are removed or damaged). The main difference is that an automatic movement will top-up the wind on the mainspring as the watch is worn thus removing, or at least minimising, the necessesity for hand winding if the watch is used every day.


Paul. Well, the main thing is my watch doesn't stop when I'm wearing it. That's the pits - if one can't depend on a watch when out somewhere. If it happens when I'm not wearing it, like at night, if at my house I simply set it to my Cartier's time and wind it and off we go!