September 5th, 2023 | Words and photography by DAHTT
The daily wind.
How the ritual of winding my watches every day brought me closer to them.
Over the last year or so I've reduced my collection from 40 watches to just 5. I hoped that a smaller number would result in a deeper connection with each watch, and more meaningful wrist-time for the ones which remained.
An unexpected outcome has been the unintentional development of a new, daily routine. Each evening usually sometime after dinner, I take off whichever watch I've been wearing all day and return it to the watch box. I then wind all of the mechanical watches in the box and set them all to the atomic clock.
I started doing this so that when choosing a watch the next morning, they'd all be ready to go. I found doing so resulted in more varied choices.
Before this routine I tended to grab either the Smith's or the Pelagos. The Smith's was my most worn watch and thus was usually set to the right time. A few winds in the morning and it was good for the day. The Pelagos seemed to never need winding so I'd often grab it for a change as it would usually still be ticking and telling the right time.
Since winding and setting all my watches each night, I've found myself wearing my Longines far more often.
It's the only watch I have with a date, and the tiny extra bit of effort involved in setting the date as well as the time was historically enough to put me off picking it up.
When it's wound and set though, I've found myself picking it up and wearing it to several Sunday lunches.
My Rolex too has seen lots more wrist time! Formerly my tool/work watch, the Rolex stopped being worn so much, partly because it's so sentimental now that I try to avoid risky situations with it. But having it wound and set all the time I've started reaching for it on days when I'm staying in our sleepy little village or working from home.
The biggest affect of this new routine surprisingly has nothing to do with wearing watches. I've found the ten minutes or so it takes to wind and set each watch, has become one of the most beneficial parts of my day.
There is comfort in the routine and the task itself has an almost meditative quality.
A pause in the chaos of daily life. A constant in an unpredictable world. Ten minutes where everything is calm, measured and simple. The ritual of winding and setting has transcended the purpose of the task itself.
In setting them all daily I've learned that the Longines is slow, by about eight seconds a day. The Rolex and the Smith's are fast by about six, and the Pelagos fast by four. There is one watch which requires nothing of me. The Grand Seiko with its quartz movement and +/-10 seconds per year accuracy simply ticks away and serves to reassure me that the atomic clock is still correct.
I have a much deeper connection to the watches in my collection now that I interact with them all every day, but the best part is the time I've gained. A guaranteed ten minutes each day where I sit quietly and nothing else matters.