Question about charging your automatic BALLs

[peenurse]

I believe most of the Ball watches are fully automatic. I'm not sure if there is a manual one.
Anyway, just wondering how you guys "charge" your fully automatic watch? Without using an electrical watch winder of course. Just using your hand.

Would wanna know in detail like hand movement speed, time it takes to fully charge. Thanks

[roberev]

I believe most of the Ball watches are fully automatic. I'm not sure if there is a manual one.
Anyway, just wondering how you guys "charge" your fully automatic watch? Without using an electrical watch winder of course. Just using your hand.

Would wanna know in detail like hand movement speed, time it takes to fully charge. Thanks

On those few occasions when I don't have my watch on a winder and it's stopped, I just handwind it. Since none of my Balls have power reserve indicators, I have no clue when they are fully wound through movement alone.

There is one non-automatic, manual-winding Ball model: the Aviator Officer.

Rob

[diver]

I also tend to hand wind. I always have one on a winder and wear one. If one stops, I hand wind and/or move the watch in a circular motion to quickly wind with auto-wind rotor. I find it can take up to 15 minutes to wind an automatic watch using circular movements to activate the rotor.
Many other forum member know much more about movements than I do.
My HC Trieste has been stopping on me. This is frustrating as it can actually stop while on a winder. I think it needs to go back to Ball for warrranty service. It will take a while, but this was my "grail" so I want it to be happy and healthy.

regards,
Jeff

[Wolfdog]

I give mine @ 37 turns of the crown, only if it's been off of my wrist for several hours, or on the few occasions I actually hack it to set the time [I might set it every week or two, no more than that].
My one-and-only Ball has not been allowed to run down completely since the day I got it, when it stopped running in the mail en-route to my door, it's been running nearly non-stop ever since [except the few seconds whenever hacked & set].
This past Saturday night, as DST ended Sunday morning @ 02:00 EST, I turned the time back one hour & hacked to the USNO-MC, mine was running fast by a whopping +2 seconds since 08:46 EST on October 26, 2009, the last time I'd hacked it.
The only reason I even bothered winding on that day was because I'd worked on my SUV the previous week and had it off my wrist for a few hours, reset the time and gave it a gentle manual wind.
From day-one and to this day I keep a timing log of my only Ball watch, log in each time I reset the time and how many times I wind the crown, not at all necessary but something I merely enjoy doing with this watch.
Only when setting the time do I usually give it a wind, just to know it's wound, whenever I hack the time to the U.S. Naval Observatory Atomic Clock time and I never wind mine every day, daily manual winding can and does cause excessive wear to the parts.
Most of these Ball movements can take upwards of @ 50 winds from a dead stop to fully wound, varies with the movements and as found according to the movement specs themselves.
It's hard to tell otherwise how many times to wind for a full wind, if you don't know the movement specs, since they have a clutch that slips to prevent the Mainspring breaking from the possible "bear-grip" over-wind.
I do not own a watch-winder, I wear my Ball 24/7 except to clean it, clean myself, or when doing work that might damage it [such as under the hood of my SUV].
I have noticed that if I don't give it @ 37 winds when hacked, the timing can vary more than if hacked and not wound at all, the only reason I even bother winding mine when hacking it.
If I hack it to set the time, without winding it as well, mine tends to run a bit faster, yet if hacked and wound @ 37 times on average it stays more consistent.
I've tried various winds from @ 21x to 51x and logged the results each time, so winding mine 37x isn't just some random number, it actually works the best for this particular watch and movement whenever I hack/set the time.

[BrianS]

I just hand wind them about ten turns to get it going, and let the rotor do the rest while I'm wearing it.. The last thing you want to do is over hand wind it.

[morrison2951]

I just hand wind them about ten turns to get it going, and let the rotor do the rest while I'm wearing it.. The last thing you want to do is over hand wind it.

I did not know that the movement could be overwound- I also give mine about 40 turns of the crown when wound down or every so often to keep the lubricants in motion.

[JBHII]

I did not know that the movement could be overwound- I also give mine about 40 turns of the crown when wound down or every so often to keep the lubricants in motion.

Actually most modern movements have "over winding protection" in the form of a slip clutch which disengages the winding system (hand or rotor) once the spring is fully wound.

Normally around 50 turns will take you from completely unwound to fully wound on most movements.

[Wolfdog]

Like John said, most modern movements do have over-wind protection and I too have found @ 50 winds from a full stop to be about average.
My older Hamilton manual-wind does not have the slip-clutch, so once resistance is felt it's time to immediately stop winding.
With that particular manual wind watch it takes 47 winds from a dead-stop to fully wind.
When worn, I find that if I wind that Hamilton 21x the same exact time every 24 hours it's fully wound, no need to push until resistance is felt.

Automatics actually can have excessive wear when manually wound daily, even those that have a slip-clutch, as I've found when refurbishing a few pre-owned automatics over the years.
The gears that manually wind an automatic are not generally lubricated as are the jewel cups and constantly moving parts where friction needs to be reduced and held to a minimum, so manually winding them does not do anything more than wear on the surfaces of the gears.
You're honestly not really distributing any oils by doing a manual daily wind of most automatics; on the contrary it's just adding more unnecessary friction to parts that are, more often than not, not lubricated at all.

If you need more proof that manually winding an automatic every day isn't such a good idea, take a look at one of several pictures I'd taken of automatics that were manually wound every day by their previous owners, with the case-backs removed...



See all those tiny gold & silvery specs?
That's the plating on the gears that do the manual winding, plating that was worn off from daily manual winding of an automatic movement and trapped inside the watch cases and movements, mostly found stuck to the case-back when removed.
It didn't harm the movement per se, but the movement did need a thorough cleaning to remove the metal particles from the sensitive areas and then re-lubrication.
The same metal particles were found inside other automatics that I'd gotten from others that wound them manually every day, to keep them running.

Your best bet, if you're not going to wear a watch every day, is to either invest in a good watch-winder or to just let them run down and only give them a full wind on occasion just before worn.

[Timewaster]

I just let mine run until they stop, which they are certain to do, given that I wear them all in rotation. I don't use winders, and will not do so unless I have a piece that is difficult to reset after stopping (like a perpetual calendar with moon phase).

I just log on to www.time.gov and set the watch to the exact time. I also wind it manually about 40 times or so (assuming it had stopped).

If I haven't worn a watch in a long time (like over 3 weeks), I will follow the above process, even though I may not be planning on wearing it.

Regards,
-Jeff

[Wolfdog]

That's pretty much the same way I do it, Jeff, when I do wear a different watch that is.
I don't have many so the ones I don't wear sit in their gift boxes, taken out on special occasions and wound.
I might wear my 9937CE, might wear my old-style 9937SE with ETA movement or a 2730 white MOP dial to church, or the 1988 Hamilton Mil-Spec on Veterans Day and that's about it.
I usually don't wear those all day, taking them off and putting my Ball watch back on for the rest of the day.

The Ball Engineer Master II Moon-Phase is still my favorite watch of all time.
It's the one that's on my wrist most times 24/7 except to clean it, while taking a shower, or working on our only vehicle so it doesn't get scratched.
All Ball watches are simply awesome, beautiful, reliable, accurate timepieces; I'd collect them all if I had unlimited resources to do so, since it's hard to choose jut one Ball watch as nice as they are.
If I ever do get the financial resources to buy more watches, I'd definitely invest in a high-quality multiple watch-winder to keep them stored and running while not wearing them.
Until then, it's store & wind when I feel a need to wear something different, but until such time that our finances improve it's the Ball Moon-Phase that stays on my wrist nearly all of the time and wouldn't have it any other way.