As an amateur collector, I've been wondering about this since I bought my first pocket watch some years ago... Time after time (so to speak) I've read or heard that a non-working watch is "probably just overwound". Is that really possible? How can you wind a mainspring beyond its physical/dimensional limits? I suppose it's theoretically possible to exert so much force on a winding mechanism that you strip out a gear or shear a stem, but that seems pretty unlikely to my inexpert thinking.

I think I understand about a fork getting stuck because it's jumped its banking pin and thus jammed the rest of the movement's operation ("overbanking"); is this what people mean by "overwinding"?

My primary concern is whether I should cautiously avoid giving my old pocket tickers a full wind?
All info/opinion/advice gratefully received.

Damian,

I'm not an expert but as far as I know a watch cannot be over wound. When I'm using a watch I wind it all the way until it is tight and haven't had a problem. I suppose if you kept forcefully winding something would break.

It seems the term over wound is most often used to mean the watch is broken or doesn't run and the person describing it doesn't know why. I've purchased watches that don't run described as over wound and most of the time they need more than a COA.

RR

Overwound has almost become an standard Ebay seller term meaning "I wound it up all the way with a broken balance staff and still won't run, so it must be overwound".

I hear this all the time with watches sent too me for reapir i just say we will see what,s wrong.

This makes me think about a local man that brought me a family watch a 18 size model 1883 Waltham that He said was overwound,, my replay was let,s take a look and see what,s wrong ...This Guy talks a lot and i enjoy his company ,i had him take a seat beside me at the bench and he was talking away while i was taking the watch apart,All of sudden he stopped talking and was just looking at the watch scattered in parts on top of the bench ,at that point i was quite tickled for i knew what he was thinking,He ask can you ever put all those parts back together a little later he left i know thinking have i made a big mistake..he was quite pleased a few days later when He picked up the watch It was then i told him there is no such thing as a overwound watch just a drity watch that needed a service.

Thank you Lin, Richard, Harold and Samie. You've confirmed my suspicion that "overwound" is a shady excuse rather than an explanation.

Damien

If a watch didn't run simply because it was overwound, the solution would be simple. Just release the click and back off the mainspring a little. As soon as the tension on the spring was reduced to the point where it was no longer overwound, the watch would take off running.

Now that hadn't occurred to me -- and I particularly like the empirical approach. Thanks, Christopher.

Damien