charlie belden
Bill:

You're thinking of the Average Watch Owner. If you think in terms of Watch Collector, or Rich Guy With A Dozen Or More STATUS TIME PIECES, a watch winder miight makes more sense.

As to the idea for an automatic watch winder:

Winding a watch requires turning the stem back and forth some amount, say a quarter turn or a half turn in each direction. And because that's winding up a spring, it may be possible to overwind it - and do damage. Watchmakers have probably come up with a solution to the overwinding problem - some type of clutch mechanism I'd guess.

So - assuming the watch has some means of preventing overwinding, the winding operation could be done with a small servo motor - like the ones used in RC cars, planes and boats. They come in several ranges of rotation and their direction can be reversed.

Let's say we have one of these servos - a small one - with a range of + and - 90 degrees. With one power polarity it'll rotate 90 degrees CW and with the reverse power polarity, 90 degrees CCW. With a power polarity flipper it could wind a watch. Now all that's needed is a means of conrolling the rate of rotation. Too fast and you might torque the stem too much and twist it off. Too slow and you might die of old age before your watch is wound.

Here's where an inexpensive little battery powered, programmable micro-controller comes in. They're often referred to as Stamp Contollers because of their size - "larger" ones are the size of two nickles end to end and two nickles high.

Google "Arduino" and you'll find sources for, and info about Arduinos - and accessories to let you connect it to your computer via the USB port. And there are several Arduino Forums as well as YouTube vids on and how to use an Arduino.

I've programmed Arduino Minis to

- move an eyeball back and forth - in random directions, random angles from center and at random rates (like a Speed Freak's Eye - darting about)

- swing a pendulum arm back and forth - defining the angle of maximum swing and the rate at which it swings (think The Pit and the Pendulum - with the pendulum swing controlled by the micro-controller you programmed to swing at different rates)

If you're interested in this idea, e-mail me, charlieb@accesscom.com, with any questions. I can probably put the parts together and do the programming if you want to pursue this possible solution avenue