Questions

No. A winder turns the rotor the same way your wrist does, and a correctly set winder turns it less than a day of ordinary wear. Damage comes from over-winding a watch without a slipping mainspring clutch, which almost all modern automatics have, or from a winder that runs continuously in one direction at high speed. Set the turns per day to the figure the manufacturer publishes and the movement is doing nothing it was not built to do.

Most modern automatics settle between 650 and 900 turns per day. The safe approach is to look up your calibre, set the winder to the published figure, and check the watch against a reference clock after two days. Our turns-per-day guide lists the common figures by brand.

It depends on the movement. Many Rolex calibres wind in both directions, most Omega calibres wind bi-directionally, and several Seiko and older ETA movements wind in one direction only. Bi-directional is the sensible default when you do not know: it covers both cases without over-turning.

Yes, for a watch you wear in rotation. Winders with a rest period built into each programme are turning for only a few minutes an hour. If a watch is going into long-term storage, it is better to let it stop and give it a service on the usual interval.

Most take a mains adaptor, and many single and two-watch models will also run on batteries so they can sit in a drawer or a safe without a cable. Each product page lists what that model accepts.