I grew tired of trying to get my Automatic Omega to run after being fully unwound. Would it be harmful to leave the stem pulled out to the set position which stops the watch from ticking and storing it that way? Thanks for looking and any answers or thoughts...

Sounds like a good plan to me, that way the watch is powered up and ready to go when you next want to use it. One caution, having the stem part way out does make the watch vulnerable to dirt and moisture so I'd probably wrap it in a soft cloth unless you store it in a watch box which should protect it well.

Don

I am afraid of long term issues say for 4 months it sits that way then wear for a day or so....

truly a beauty watch Bill

Thank you Lindell and Tom. I would not want to do harm to my old friend. It still keeps great time.

Well as luck would have it I wore the watch for a day and it seems to have stopped running. It did not stop during a day or date change either! Winding the stem does not seem to help. Can the watch be manually wound by winding the stem or must it be rocked?

Bill,

You watch must have been close to running down when you put it away. The answer is yes, you can wind it like a manual wind wristwatch, if it is run all the way down rotate the watch and observe the seconds hand moving to be sure it is functioning, wind it until you feel a slippage then put it on. Do this each time you put it away with the crown out.

If you have the box, store it it in the box and if you have the original paperwork read the manufacturers instructions.

Don

If I'm not mistaken, self winding watches like yours will not wind completely with just wearing. There is a special friction grease used in the mainspring barrel that allows the mainspring to slip unlike a fixed mainspring on a non self winder. If you wind it as far as possible before storing and hack it, it should maintain power to run. It may be that the friction grease is no longer performing as it should.

I asked this question a few years ago and Lin & Chris Abell gave a great explanation. Click here: Self Winding Watches

If your Omega is like my Breitling, after they stop running and you go to put it it, you are supposed to slightly pull out the crown. That allows you to wind the spring and it gets it going. It is hard to explain but it is like running fast but your feet move very slow, it is a gentle wind designed to get the spring going. This is how I get my Breitling going every time I let it run out. I had many watches like yours and this is a common feature on high end watches. It is between screwed in and the quickset date. See if yours has that feature.

I wear a 23 jewel auto wind bulova and did wear a 25 jewel trainmaster either watch would run 5 days or 30 days without ever winding them.. I take them off lay them on a night stand when i go too bed ,then back on in the morning and they never need winding ,,i do move around a lot and that keeps them wound just fine.

If you have a automatic wind watch that will not wind itself when wore seems too me that somethings wrong.

Samie, you are moving around a lot hiding all of your money in different places.

When I wind the watch it does seem like something is slipping. I noticed it seems to feel like that everytime I wound it but now it does not start to tick. Rocking it in my hand to jump start the balance wheel does not seem to work either. My local jeweler said he could get it going so its off to him this friday I guess. I feel bad cause I don't wear it as often as I used to. The older these watches get the more afraid I become they will break and be unfixable. Just the band on an Omega can run $400 in Stainless and that is what I bought the watch for. I spent $800 for a "tune up" at Omega when the main spring broke 3 years ago. But it came back looking like brand new I admit. LoL...

Hi all, my automatic Longines will not wind itself when you first put it on. Per the directions you should first manually wind the watch (30 turns of the crown). Once it is manually wound the normal movement of your wrist is enough to keep it wound enough that when you put it back on the next day after a nights sleep the watch WILL be able to fully re-wind itself. If you allow the watch to sit for more than 36 hrs you should manually wind the watch before wearing it for it to function properly.