A couple of days after I received my Panerai Luminor Chrono, one of the first questions that I thought was, “is it okay to turn the hands counterclockwise and wind the watch backward?” At first, I didn’t think that it was a problem until I contacted a luxury watch servicing company near me.
It’s recommended not to wind a watch backward because it can cause stress on the mainspring, stem, and internal movement: especially for watches with complications. While it may show no immediate effects, winding a watch backward can gradually damage the watch’s overall longevity and timekeeping.
In the rest of the post, I am going to share my discussion with a local watch servicing company that helped me answer this question, why it’s even worse to wind a watch backward with a timepiece with complications, and my thoughts about backward winding.
Why Is It Not Recommended To Wind A Watch Backwards?
When you rotate the crown counterclockwise (AKA winding a watch backward) you are shortly pausing the movement of the watch, which can cause unnecessary strain on the watch’s internal moving parts. Watch movements naturally move clockwise, and turning the movement in the opposite direction can lead to inaccurate timekeeping and unreliability.
I contacted one of the best local watch servicing stores near me called “Soni Time And Jewelry”. As of right now, they have a 4.9-star rating on Google and have serviced many timepieces, so I thought they would be a great business to contact to answer the specific question I had about backward winding.
I contemplated calling them and asked myself if they were really going to answer my question, but I thought to myself, “I have nothing to lose” and I called them. Immediately, one of their luxury watch specialists answered the phone and kindly greeted me. I asked him, “Is it safe to wind a watch backward? Is it ok to turn the hands of my watch counterclockwise?” He replied to me,
“Generally, you should not wind a watch backwards because it can harm the stem, and mainspring, and other internal moving parts. In fact, winding the watch backward has no benefits and doesn’t even wind the watch, and the only way to wind a watch properly is turning the hands clockwise.”
Soni Time And Jewelry
After the man said this to me, I agreed with all of the points he made. I didn’t realize that winding the watch backward would harm the mainspring and other internal parts, which really opened my eyes to being more careful when I wind my luxury watch.
And on top of that, I genuinely agreed when he said that winding a watch backward has no benefits at all. The only reason that someone would wind the watch backward is if the time they wanted to set a watch is closer going counterclockwise than clockwise. However, since you cannot overwind a watch, it is much better to take the safer way and rotate the hands clockwise.
Why Is It Even Worse To Wind A Watch With Complications Backwards?
During my conversation with this man from “Soni Time And Jewelry”, I also wanted to ask him about more complicated watches and if it’s bad to wind the watch backward as well.
Since I have a Panerai Luminor Chronograph that has the chronograph function and a date display, I wanted to know if winding the watch backward would harm it. I told him all about my Panerai Chronograph and asked if winding this watch backward was also bad, and he said to me,
“Oh, it’s even worse to wind a watch with complications backward. Since watches with complications have even more internal moving parts than normal watches, winding it backwards can damage its timekeeping and complication movements as well, which can lead to expensive servicing. It may not look like it causes problems now, but it can lead to major issues in the future.”
soni Time And Jewelry
What he said really shocked me but made perfect sense at the same time. At first, I didn’t even consider winding a watch backward to be bad, but now it’s at the front of my mind whenever I wind my watches. Especially with my Panerai watch now too. Since it has a chronograph movement and a day display, I want to be as careful with it as possible so I don’t damage any of the complications.
The luxury watch already costs thousands of dollars, and I would absolutely hate to spend even more money servicing it because it was my fault for winding the watch backward.
Also, I related to him when he said that it can lead to issues in the future. When I turned the hands on my watch backward and counterclockwise, I didn’t notice anything bad happening to my watch at the moment, but after having this conversation with Soni Time And Jewelry, I know that winding it backward is harmful and damaging to the watch’s durability.
Winding A Watch Backward: My Thoughts
Originally, winding a watch backward was at the back of my mind when talking about keeping your watch in the best condition possible and I really overlooked it to be honest with you. However, after I had that talk with “Soni Time And Jewelry”, I really learned that I should be staying away from it as much as possible because it can ruin my watch’s movement.
Also, I thought it was useful to know that watches with more complications need to be winded carefully. Even though I own a watch with complications, I didn’t know that winding the watch counterclockwise can ruin ALL of the internal parts, so I’m very thankful for contacting “Soni Time And Jewelry” to educate me about this.
Whether you are just getting into luxury watches or are an avid watch enthusiast/collector, it is helpful to understand that winding a watch backward is unsafe and can damage its mainspring, stem, and other internal moving parts: that goes for quartz watches, automatic watches, and complicated watches especially.