The Breitling Watch Blog

I was thinking it was about time that I reviewed a Wolf Designs winder. I think the Wolf Designs winders are some of the best bang for buck winders out there and I know several people that have them. They are affordable, well-made, look great, and have good response and customer service from what I’ve heard. Their pricepoint makes them easily affordable and much better than the plastic stuff that is out there.

The Module 2.5 Single is a basic model with no cover to protect from dust. This is important to some people, and less important to others. The outside of the winder is a leatherette, with the inside portions made from “silk fabric”. While it doesn’t feel like silk to me, it is nice to the touch. The winder has a single control on the front allowing you to switch between A (Clockwise), B (Counter-Clockwise) & C (Bi-Directional). The winder is pre-set to 900 TPD, which is just the right amount for most single directional winding movements such as the Valjoux 7750.

There is also a green light on the metal front control. From Wolf Designs Website: “A green light indicates normal winder operation. A red light indicates either low battery power or that the drum is incorrectly turning.” The winder is interesting in that it runs through a cycle of charging up the mainspring, and then into a sleep cycle for 18 hours to allow the mainspring to unwind and discharge stored up energy, which is supposedly better for you watch. Operation is almost completely silent, but with the 18 hour sleep cycle, you can time it to be sleeping when you are!

The cuff locked in and can hold a watch with a strap size of up to 10″! That’s definately most people out there. The cuff compresses via a spring inside. When pushed in, the cuff clicks into place and holds the watch firmly. I have heard of some people having problems with the cuffs not staying in after a while with heavier watches, but that the Wolf Designs customer service fixed the problems quickly and easily when it happened.

There’s the butt-shot! As you can see, a compartment for D-Cell batteries as well as a jack for the AC Adapter. They recommend Lithium batteries as they last twice as long as Alkaline. The watch runs great with the AC Adapter and that’s what I use, however, with Batteries the winder can be put inside a safe as well and kept running, also a nice feature.

Overall its a good bang for buck winder with better-than-basic features and superior build quality. The interior structure of the winder is wood-framed, and the electronics do use fairly sohpisticated timing systems compared to basic winders. Wolf Designs sells these for $195 at regular price and occasionally a deal can be had.

I blogged about Orbita’s Customer Service before and how great it was, and one again, they are still coming through. Cheryl, who was the nice lady I dealt with before from Orbita, was the same one I dealt with last time when I emailed them about one of my motors failing. I emailed her again when my Uncle was interested in purchasing one of the Red Sparta Executive Winders on their website for $400, which is $600 off their MSRP price of $1000. It is a beautiful winder, with the same attention to detail as all Orbita products.

Unfortunately, since my uncle resides in Canada, the system would not let me check out. I emailed Cheryl, whom I had not spoken to in nearly 2 years, and she responded immediately with some questions, and then eventually finding a solution for us that worked, and they shipped it out here to Canada for us!

Again I have to thank Orbita for their hospitality in dealing with me and keeping me happy as a customer. It seems these days less and less companies manage to do this – Orbita is truly a gem to deal with.

After using several Rapport Cherry Double watchwinders for about a year, I figured it would be time to post a review finally of how these guys have held up. I ran 2 of them, and I gave one to my father about 1 1/2 years ago. I recently sold one of mine however so I only have 1 now. The reason for the sale was simply because I no longer needed to have six watches winding all the time. I now use a double Rapport and 2 Orbita Sparta deluxe winders. The photo below is of a Mahogany one.. the Cherry is a bit lighter.

Noise
These winders are nearly silent. I did have a problem with one of them making a very slight ticking noise, to which I called their 1-800 number and spoke to a friend fellow there that handles the repairs. He immediately sent me 2 motors and told me to call him when they arrived and he would explain how to install them. The option of sending the winder back was also given to me, but that would have taken a long time and it was not broken.

The procedure was painless, and the winder was restored to its original quiet operation. One thing might need to be said here.. I am VERY picky about noise from a winder. Most people I have talked to tolerate a lot more noise than I do, so when I say a watchwinder is noisy, it is very slight.

I know Norman likes to talk up the Garinin winders as being silent, affordable and reliable, but I do not know how to compare the noise levels so I can’t compare. Maybe when I visit him in the spring!

Finish/Construction
First Class all the way! The Finishing on the Rapports comes very close to the Orbitas, which is just about perfect. My Orbitas have an inlaid design on them so there might be some sort of bias there, however the wood is solid, heavy and lacquered very nicely. The lacquering is smooth and done with care. The boxes are lined well, and the interior frames are of metal construction, same as Orbita.

The watches mount on pillows, like Orbita and Wolf Designs and Scatola, which is the only way I like it.

One small complaint would be the peice behind the pillow that covers the bottom of the cup holder should be made of foam rather than furry cardboard.. when i removed the peice to replace the motors, I realized that it was cardboard backing. This isn’t noticeable from using it, but now knowing that, I wish it were foamed, like the Orbitas. Seems more high-quality.

Usability/Function
The Rapports have limited controls for keeping the watches wound. The is simply an on-off switch, and a timed or constant mode. The timed mode runs at intervals (i’m not sure exactly what the timing is) and constant just keeps running. The winder alternates between clockwise and counter clockwise. The only problem I’ve had with it is that single directional movements (valjoux 7750) only last about 1 week on it if I do not wind them prior to putting them into the winder. If I fully wind the watch before placing it in the winder, then there is no problem – at least not after a few weeks.

Reliability
The winders have run faithfully (though with the slight noise problem), and I can’t complain that they don’t work. They were making a ticking sound about as loud as a wall clock in a quiet room at night. They have a 2 year warranty and the service from Rapport was exceptional. I actually dealt directly with windyourwatch.com as they were the Canadian distributors for the product. Motors are very heavy duty and the insides of the units are very nicely done.

Conclusion
The Rapport winder is a decent winder for the money. There aren’t a lot of winders out there that give you this level of finish and quality for the amount of money. However, the winder is not perfect, and I have heard some people say that the Official Time winders that have a similar design are a bit cheaper and better on ebay. The Official Time winders are about $50 cheaper, but come in strange colors.. a little less traditional (and less aesthetically pleasing) than the Rapports. But perhaps they are more reliable or run better. I have not tried them yet.

I would recommend Rapport to someone looking for a dual winder in the $350-$400 range, however, I would also say that you’d be better off getting an Orbita if you can spend the money.

I’ve owned a few Orbita Sparta deluxe winders, and the older ones that I own, though still only 10 months old, the motors they shipped with were quite noisy. Not a huge problem for a winder that only winds for 5-10 seconds every 10 or 15 minutes depending on the cycle. I ended up selling one of them, but still have two of the deluxe models, one with a noisy motor, and one with a nice quiet one. The noisy one bugged me, so I emailed Orbita.

My Sparta Deluxe Winder looks like this:

A nice lady named Cheryl emailed me back quite promptly, and we conversed via email and she said that it would be replaced under warranty if I could provide the serial number to her as proof. WOW! That made me a happy guy. I was perfectly willing to pay money for the new quieter motor, but she said that it would be replaced free of charge, which really made my day.

I sent her the serial number and she sent me an email a few days later indicating it would be shipped out. I received it a couple weeks after our emails via Fedex, installed it in my winder, and it is now dead silent! I love it.

I really have to say that my experience with Orbita Watchwinder’s customer service was among the best I have ever experienced, and that all my further winder purchases will be made through them, not just due to the customer service (other winder companies have also been good) but because of the excellent product as well.

A good friend of mine, somewhat new to automatic watches, wrote a review on his initial impressions of the Garinin Dual Tower watch winders. Here you go:

After endless hours of internet scouring and discussion with a fellow watch enthusiast I finally bought a Watch Winder. My collection of auto watches had grown to 5. So I definitely needed a winder to keep them all up and running. But I couldn’t bring myself to buying an Orbita or any other quality (and costly) winder. My previous watch purchases have left me rather baron in the wallet. Plus the wife has me under probation till further notice.

I was told and warned about the cheap China Made watch winders that spawned on Ebay. They were of low quality craftmanship and sub par motors that would only last a few months. So I spotted Garinin Winders during my extensive net search. I liked the look and function of the dual tower winder and decided to try one out. Price wise they were low enough to sneak under the wife’s radar.

Upon receiving my winder I quickly scuttled to my den, just narrowly missing the scouting eye of my better half. I carefully unwrapped everything and inspected the quality of the unit. The first thing I noticed was the “Made in China” label. Really, what isn’t made in China these days? The dimensions come in at L 6.5″ W 6″ H 11.5″inches with glass windows 3″ in diameter and weighing 2 lb.

I opened up the front door and noted that it was at a slight angle leaning back. That way the door doesn’t swing forward while your trying to get your watch out. And I notice a slight resistance just before the door opens. Turns out there are small magnets discreetly built in to keep the door securely closed without a complicated latch system. Very nice!

The watch holders are nothing terribly ingenious in design. Simply spring loaded pushers that add tension to the band when the watch is wrapped around it. You can remove the face of the holder to reveal a smaller face to accommodate smaller bands.

I then load up my two Seiko divers for a test spin. One with a jubilee metal band and the other a rubber strap. The Holders had no problems adjusting to either. My thick Formex AS1500 Auto (About 20mm) on the other hand just fitted in.

The holders slip back into the rotator drum with a click and they were ready to roll. Taking a look at the back there are a few switches. First rocker switch is for On and Off. The second rocker allows you to select counter-clock, alternate and clockwise rotation. The third is the rotation frequency slide switch. You have 4 choices.

> Rotates 33 seconds rests 12 minutes
> Rotates 10 minutes rests 90 minutes
> Rotates 30 minutes rests 180 minutes
> Rotates 60 minutes rests 180 minutes

I plug in the 3 volt adapter and holding my breath I flick the on switch. Brrr-gurgle-gurgle!!! then silence. My heart sunk. Did the winder poof out? A quick peek thru the winders show the watches rotating together nicely. All was silent! Brrr-gurgle-gurgle!! This time my stomach felt something. Ooooh! It was my stomach making that noise as I had yet to have dinner. Ok……..

After realizing that I was very happy to hear how quiet the Garinin winder motor was. I was expecting a Can opener grinding whirr noise but quite the contrary. I had to come within a few inches to really here something going on inside the winder. Leaving this winder on my nite table wouldn’t be a problem at all. After playing around with all the other switches everything appeared to be in working order.

My initial impression of tis Garinin Dual Tower Watch Winder is Excellent. I am very happy with this product BUT it remains to see how long the motors will last. If the motors are brushless I would expect a few years of use. If you don’t see another review then you can assume all is well and running. Otherwise a long, detailed and angry rant will be posted in the near future.

Check out this cool video review of the Orbita Sparta Deluxe watch winder! Shows and explains how its used and how it works. Very neat video. Yes that is me speaking there, I’m not a public speaker, but I don’t mind doing a review once in a while. The Orbita Sparta is a fantastic winder and very affordable. I highly recommend it! Works well with heavier watches such as Breitling.

I have reposted this from a forum.. but it is my writing:

I own several watchwinders, and have owned yet more others in the past. Currently I am running 2 Orbita Sparta Deluxe single winders, and 2 Rapport Cherry Duo winders. I’ve also had different incarnations of the Sparta, the Orbita Geneva, Steinhausen/Cheap Chinese Winders, and also seen several in action such as the Wolf Designs and Orbita Bellino.

Not all winders are created equal.

You need to decide a few things when buying a winder… How quiet does it need to be? How many watches does it need to wind? Does it need to be Battery or AC Operated or both? and How much control over the directionality do I need? The watches that you use in it, whether they are Rolex, Omega, Breitling or whatever.. will determine the answers to your questions.

Some of the more popular brands out there right now are Orbita, Wolf Designs, Scatola del Tempo, Eilux, and Rapport. On ebay however, there has been a large number of chinese made cheap watch winders available. I have bought some of these… and in my experience, there has always been problems with them. They all have cheap wood… very thin, and poorly finished on the inside, and lighter than you’d expect. Some are very noisy (however expensive winders aren’t always quiet either!) and some have inferior pillow/mounts for the watches.. one of the chinese units I purchased couldn’t fit my watches on them because my wrists are too small!

I really do like the Orbita watchwinders out there, but I’ve encountered many noisy models. A lot of sellers are selling outdated old stock of Orbita winders that generate a lot of noise… the Geneva range and the older Spartas can be noisy. They Spartas aren’t so bad since they only make noise for about 5 seconds every 10-15 minutes, however the Genevas can grind on for 10-15 minutes at a time!

The Wolf Designs winders are among my favourites. They are programmable, and they are quiet. They even store settings! They are however expensive. If you want a good, quiet winder on a budget, I would recommend Eilux or Rapport. They don’t have quite as many programmable options, but the are very well made, and they are quiet, and they are of good quality. Eilux in particular is extremely quiet.

Make sure that you check what direction your watch winds in. If it is a Breitling that is listed on the Breitling Source site, going to the watch model page will tell you which direction the watch needs to be wound in on a watch winder. The Breitling Caliber 13 that is in the Breitling Chronomat Evolution and Super Avengers in particular on winds one direction, and it is very common. It needs to be wound a bit more than bi-directional winding movements in order to stay fully wound, so keep that in mind. Orbita’s website also has information on just about all watches and the direction of winding: http://www.orbita.net/pages/17100.htm

Look for some upcoming reviews of watch winders such as the Rapport and Orbita Sparta winders.