First World Problem/Solution - Mechanical Watch Winder

[HoosierBuddy]

Hey guys,

I've had this old seiko kinetic watch for about 25 years. The watch is not a true "mechanical watch" as the winder mechanism actually runs a generator that charges a battery rather than the old type where it wound a main spring. But...the same issue remains...if you don't wear the watch a few hours a day it will start to lose power, and charging it on the wrist can take many hours of wear.

There are some people who say you can charge these with an inductive charger designed for a toothbrush...and I tried that first, but had zero luck, and many online comments indicate that the inductive method is very hit-and-miss.

My brute force approach works like a charm as you can see on this 2 minute video.

Anyway...fun little project. I considered using an arduino and limit switches to make my winder oscillate...but then I got thinking about how a pump-jack works out in the oil patch and suddenly I had much simpler way to get the proper rocking motion to recharge my watch.

Phil

 

[cspcrx]

Creative solution. Looks nice as well

 

[bdbecker]

That is very cool! I might have to borrow that idea and build one of my own.

I've been looking at DIY winder ideas for awhile now since I typically don't wear my watch (Seiko 5) on the weekends and it usually runs out of steam mid-afternoon on Sunday. I like how your winder both does the job, and is fun to watch run. Plugging it into a cheap plug-in timer to run a few minutes a couple times a day would make it totally automatic.

 

[HoosierBuddy]

Thanks guys.

It's weird, but you actually have to get the watch to rock like that to get it to recharge. I've tried just rotating the watch on a spindle, and that doesn't make it charge at all.

If anyone makes one of these...you can make it shorter than I did by shortening up the long rod that connects the motor arm to the spindle arm. CRITICAL is getting the lengths of the motor arm and the spindle arm the right ratio. The spindle arm has to be longer than the motor arm by a small amount or the spindle will turn all the way round. But, the longer the spindle arm gets, the less angle of motion you'll have at the spindle...meaning the watch may not rock far enough on each cycle to actually charge. I made mine three times before I found the sweet spot.

Also...as I noted on the Youtube write up...originally I had the spindle perpendicular to the ground and I found that I got MUCH BETTER action out of the watch action by mounting it tilted 15-degrees or so from vertical. If the Seiko mechanism doesn't oscillate far enough...the watch doesn't charge. My set up gets it to oscillate about 170-degrees...which is enough to make it charge. I took mine from 1/3 charge indicated to 2/3 indicated in about 30 minutes this morning.

My watch NEVER gets above 2/3 indicated charge...which likely means the battery is getting weak again. In 25 years, I've had to send it in 3 times for this issue.

Phil

 

[fiftyv8]

Practical solution and a great conversation piece to boot.
Thanks for sharing.