Looking for advice on how to use/maintain vintage watch!

[Warwian]

Hello!

I recently bought a vintage Mirona watch with a Unitas 6300N movement (here's a thread I made about it: Need help identifying "Mirona" wristwatch!) and I'm looking for advice on how to use and maintain it. For example, the watch speeds about a minute or so every day which I want to correct. When correcting the speeding minute I've been rotating the crown counter clockwise never giving it much thought. I did however read that this potentially might damage the movement in these old watches (especially watches which track dates). I did a bit of googling on the matter and there seems to be a lot of opinion regarding this out there and I'm as confused now as I was before.

What my searches came up with was that it's probably best not to set the time counter clockwise. Even though having to set the time a minute back going clockwise seems like a lot of hassle when you have to do it every day.
I also read something about "hacking" which I tried. It didn't work at all when my watch was fully wound so I had to wait for a couple of hours until I managed to stop the second hand by putting a slight pressure counter clockwise. I stopped doing this however as the second hand started moving backwards for a couple of seconds. This seemed like something that'd potentially be damaging to the movement.

Lastly I'm curious on how to wind the watch properly. The first days of owning the watch I was more or less constantly winding the watch to fully wound position. This seemed a like a bad idea after a while as it probably wears out parts unnecessarily quickly. I realized it's probably best to just wind it fully once when I wake up instead and leave it at that. I do like fiddling with stuff however, so it's going to be hard to resist not winding the watch a little when sitting on the bus for example. What are your thoughts on this?

I also read this when googling: "4: After you feel resistance stop winding. NB: Some watch experts suggest that you wind the crown backwards (counterclockwise) five or six turns. This may help re-distribute some lubricant, and, in the case of some early or special models, it may relieve some strain on the watch's inner workings. In any case, doing this "back-winding" won't harm your watch."

How to Wind a Mechanical Watch

Is there any truth to it? I had to see what happened when I wound my watch backwards a turn or two. Nothing exiting happened. There was no resistance whatsoever (unlike winding it in the proper direction) so I believe the spring was "disengaged"? I guess winding backwards is quite pointless?

Thanks in advance for any help and I hope my post wasn't too confusing!

[tinknocker]

I'm no expert, but with my manuals, I wind them fully every morning. Never had a problem with that.

Winding backwards, I don't think will distribute the lube because the winding gears don't move backwards.

For the rest, someone with more knowledge will have to step in.

[GeneJockey]

The first thing to know about mechanical watches is that they're pretty tough. Our fathers, grandfathers, and great-grandfathers wound and wore them every day in all conditions, set them as needed, and got them serviced regularly, and they ran for decades with little bother.

The service is key, of course. Watches run best with the right oil in the right amount in the right places, and nowhere else. Every small town, and every neighborhood in larger towns used to have at least one watchmaker to service the watches. Now that the lubricants are synthetic, and not porpoise jaw oil, they last for years, and a newly serviced watch should be good to go for 5-7 years.

If it's consistently gaining a minute a day (that's the proper term), it should be possible for a watchmaker to regulate it to run closer to accurate. I don't suggest doing it yourself if you've never worked on a watch, especially since the watchmaker will have a timing machine that will make changing the rate by 1 minute/day a snap.

There is generally no problem with turning the hands backwards. The one exception would be if you find that turning the hands backwards stops the second hand, which indicates the cannon pinion is too tight, or insufficiently lubricated, but in any case not slipping on the center wheel post. If that's the case, you may also be harming the watch even more by setting the watch 11:59 forward than you would setting it 0:01 back. Others may comment on when it is and isn't a good idea to set a calendar watch.

The hour and minute hands, you see, are not directly attached to the train, but rather the minute hand is mounted on the cannon pinion, a hollow tube which fits friction tight on the center wheel post. It's designed to slip, allowing the hands to be turned without affecting the running of the movement. The cannon pinion has a gear which drives the hour hand through a reduction gear. The hour hand mounts on another hollow tube which fits over the cannon pinion loosely.

'some increased resistance' is so incredibly subjective as to be almost completely useless. On a manual wind watch, when the spring is fully wound, it stops winding. It's not a subtle thing. Wind your watch till the crown stops turning. You'll know. Do that every day you wear the watch, at roughly the same time.

There are only two parts that move when you spin the crown backwards, the stem and the clutch. The only 'redistribution of lubricant' would be where the clutch teeth slide over the bevel pinion teeth, and while lubricating the interacting surfaces of those parts is a good idea, it's not terribly important to keep redistributing the grease there.

Welcome to the world of mechanical watches! They're amazing little machines, a testament to human ingenuity! A piece of history you can wear, and use.

[AbslomRob]

The advice about not setting the time backward was I think a carryover from much older, keyset fusee watches; pretty much anything made in the last 150 years should be fine setting both ways. In fact, most calender wristwatches specifically "quickset" by setting the time back and forth between 9:00 and 12:00. I have heard of there being problems with some calender watches that have a direct-set option where you'll have problems if you try to direct-set the date if the time is between 9:00 and 12:00 (since the daily date changeover gears are already partly engaged), so it's probably best to understand what's correct for your specific watch.

Backwinding the crown does nothing on pretty much every watch I've ever seen. Again, pre-industrial watches may be different. But I've yet to encounter a stem-wind that didn't just cause the clutch wheel and winding pinion to slip. The notion of stopping your winding as soon as you feel resistance is good; the amount of power delivered by the mainspring goes up sharply if you "force" another click, which at best can cause the balance wheel to "knock" (turn so far that the impulse jewel hits the far side of the lever). That'll cause it to keep time badly until the power drops below a more reasonable threshold.

There's nothing particularly wrong if the second hand stops when you set the time backwards; it just means that the pressure of the cannon pinion against the center wheel is enough to counter the mainspring pressure. But it depends on the watch somewhat; older, larger watches usually have larger, more powerful mainsprings, so its less likely to happen then on a modern high-grade wristwatch.

[joeuk]

Use the advice above and enjoy your watch, I still listen to mine lol

[Warwian]

I apologize for the quite late answer but thanks a bunch for all the information. Some truly great advice in this thread. It gave me the confidence to continue using my watch every day and to buy three new vintage mechanical watches! :)

[DragonDan]

Yes, I am fully of the opinion vintage watches should be worn and enjoyed!

PS: I'm still looking for a source on that pre-pubescent porpoise proboscis oil

[Tomcat1960]

You'll find over time that you're owning more than just one mechanical watch anyway - so you don't wear them each day. Therefore, to me, one minute per day is good enough - I set my "watch of today" anyway, when I take it out of its box.

I agree, it doesn't matter whether you set a watch clockwise or counter-clockwise. Some watch friends, however, prefer a slightly slow watch so they have to turn clockwise only when setting it