Hand-winding Calibre 12 watches

B
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Hi Everyone - I'm new to vintage Heuer watches, and have been fortunate enough to have acquired a few Autavias and a Carrera that all have the Calibre 12 movement.

I know this is an incredibly stupid question - but with the crown on the lefthand side I wanted to make sure I'm hand-winding it correctly. Generally I only hand wind if the watch is empty of power reserve and I want to start wearing it and jumpstarting the movement. So I suppose my questions are:

1) Is it bad on the movement to hand-wind an empty Calibre 12? Or should I just put it on and get the rotor moving to get things started?

2) Do I wind it clockwise or counter-clockwise as the crown is on the left? It is MUCH easier to wind counterclockwise, and when I go backward (our clockwise) it seems to be really gritty and worries me that I may be causing damage to the movement.

Anyways - any tips for what is best for these 1970's watches would be MIUCH appreciated - and sorry for the total newbie questions!
 
abrod520
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Welcome to the Forum and to the world of Chronomatic movements! 😀

B barrelandblue
1) Is it bad on the movement to hand-wind an empty Calibre 12?

Nope, perfectly OK 👍 They tend to have pretty good power reserves too so simply wearing it daily should keep it running.

B barrelandblue
2) Do I wind it clockwise or counter-clockwise as the crown is on the left? It is MUCH easier to wind counterclockwise, and when I go backward (our clockwise) it seems to be really gritty and worries me that I may be causing damage to the movement.

Clockwise, just like any other watch - the watch module on these was just rotated 180 degrees. What I always did with mine was to turn it upside down, and wind as regular. They are gritty-feeling to hand wind, but if it feels as if you are truly forcing it you may want to have it checked by a watchmaker. Otherwise it may take a bit more effort than a more modern automatic watch, but won't hurt it.
 
Calibre11
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abrod520 abrod520
Welcome to the Forum and to the world of Chronomatic movements! 😀



Nope, perfectly OK 👍 They tend to have pretty good power reserves too so simply wearing it daily should keep it running.



Clockwise, just like any other watch - the watch module on these was just rotated 180 degrees. What I always did with mine was to turn it upside down, and wind as regular. They are gritty-feeling to hand wind, but if it feels as if you are truly forcing it you may want to have it checked by a watchmaker. Otherwise it may take a bit more effort than a more modern automatic watch, but won't hurt it.
I used to do the same- turn it around and wind like normal
 
SteveP
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abrod520 abrod520
Clockwise, just like any other watch - the watch module on these was just rotated 180 degrees. What I always did with mine was to turn it upside down, and wind as regular. They are gritty-feeling to hand wind, but if it feels as if you are truly forcing it you may want to have it checked by a watchmaker. Otherwise it may take a bit more effort than a more modern automatic watch, but won't hurt it.

Actually, I used to wind it the wrong way too until I was enlightened by abrod's technique....it's by far the best/easiest way to do it in my opinion!
Steve
 
MRC
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SteveP SteveP
Actually, I used to wind it the wrong way too until I was enlightened by abrod's technique....it's by far the best/easiest way to do it in my opinion!
Steve

That caught me out too with my Cal 11 Hamilton. 😵‍💫

On a positive note just the action of action of getting it out of the box and winding it the wrong way was enough to get it going via the micro-rotor.

Not quite so good news: I'm wearing it today and it shows the date as "7 18". Well, actually half a "7" and half an "8".
 
chronomaticguy
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You can actually feel whether you are winding or not. If you wind correct way, you hear grinding and feels harder but if you go wrong way, it is just soft, the crown turns without any noise or resistance.
 
paysdoufs
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HAPPY NEW YEAR, everyone!

Im glad I found the present thread since I was about to ask the same “stupid” (Sorry, TS...) question for my new beauty (see picture) 😉

I do, however, realize that I have a couple of follow-up questions and hope that someone can help me with these...

1) How recommended is it to (extensively) hand-wind vintage Cal. 12 movements? As far as I know, some movements (Valjoux 7750, Seiko 3-hand mvmts) won’t suffer from it, while others (ETA 2824-2, Sellita SW-200) will suffer in terms of accelerated mechanical wear. On which side of the fence do vintage Cal. 12 sit?

2) Are vintage Cal. 12 hacking? I realized that I cannot tell due to the lack of a running second; but right now it seems to me that no, they aren't.

3) Date change: No middle position with the crown, so no quick-set. The way to do it is by repeatedly going from 21h to 3h (approximately). Correct?

E479C8D1-B2F7-4BEA-A8BD-EF4A3CB88F79.jpeg
Edited:
 
chronomaticguy
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Happy New Year to everyone!

1) winding involves a bunch of wheels that are made of soft metal and a main spring. It might wear if you do it everyday for 5 to 10 years due to grinding. I wind mine about 8 to 10 turns a day.

2) No it is not hacking. Actually if you run the chrono sweep second you would see it yourself. The power for the sweep second comes from the second wheel, although there is no second hand on the dial, there is a second wheel inside the movement.

3. To change the date you need to move from 9pm to 0am, depending on whether the hands are installed correctly, but in general it need to go back and forth only about 3 hours to change the date.

Cheers
 
imagwai
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1) Should be fine but I would always advise doing it with care with any vintage watch amd do not overwind.

2) No, don't think they hack.

3) Correct. Again, don't try to rush it. I usually don't bother setting the date for this reason, unless the date is close.
 
paysdoufs
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Tks a lot guys - all good 👍

@chronomaticguy : Not sure I'm following your explanation re. #2... “Chrono sweep second” —> You’re simply referring to the chrono seconds, right? So I should pull the crown on my Cal. 12 Carrera and e.g. a Valjoux-equipped watch, both with a running chrono, and would then see a difference in what happens? Not sure I have the guts to do that 😟
 
abrod520
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paysdoufs paysdoufs
So I should pull the crown on my Cal. 12 Carrera and e.g. a Valjoux-equipped watch, both with a running chrono, and would then see a difference in what happens?

No. Won't necessarily break anything immediately, but definitely not advised.
 
imagwai
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An easier way would be to pull the crown and listen to see if it's still ticking 😀
 
paysdoufs
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That sounds less invasive 😁

I’ll ask for the help of a young family member with better ears tomorrow 😉
Edited:
 
chronomaticguy
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paysdoufs paysdoufs
Tks a lot guys - all good 👍

@chronomaticguy : Not sure I'm following your explanation re. #2... “Chrono sweep second” —> You’re simply referring to the chrono seconds, right? So I should pull the crown on my Cal. 12 Carrera and e.g. a Valjoux-equipped watch, both with a running chrono, and would then see a difference in what happens? Not sure I have the guts to do that 😟


No, you have got it wrong. You can check hacking, when you turn the crown against the running second, if it stops then it is a hacking movement. There might be also different way to test it.

Pulling the crown, while sweep second hand run it wouldn't break absolutely nothing. But before you go and destroy your watch, just take our words for it. A chronomatic movement is not hacking.
 
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