Automatic Vs. Hand-wound Watches

Automatic and manual watches are mechanical devies and need no battery.

Automatic and hand-wound watches are mechanical timepieces that use a balance wheel and hairspring to power the movement. The automatic watch is self-winding. The manual watch needs to be wound daily to keep running.

History

Manual, or hand-wound, watches have been in widespread use since the mid-19th century. The automatic version began mass production in about 1931.

Automatic Function

The automatic is a perpetual running watch that employs a rotor or weight to move with the motion of the wrist to keep the watch wound and running.

Manual Features

The manual watch has a similar movement as the automatic, but it does not feature a rotor and must be wound by hand daily to keep it running.

Mechanical Benefits

Regularly maintained automatic and manual watches need no battery to operate like modern quartz crystal watches, which need battery replacements every three to four years.

Accuracy

Regularly serviced automatic and manual watches can still lose or gain up to eight seconds a day. Both models should have their regulators routinely serviced to maintain acccuracy.

Bottom Line

Manual watches allow owners to interact with their timepieces daily, while automatics give the benefit of having a non-winding, battery-less watch featuring a quality mechanical movement.

References

• Watches.co.uk: automatic watch origins
• Timezone.com: automatic versus manual
• Europastar.com: mechanical watches

Resources

• Atmos-man.com; watch history