Manual Wind vs Automatic

The terms manual wind and automatic refer to the method in which the watch is wound. Quartz watches run continuously when they have a battery inside of them, so they cannot be wound. Only mechanical watches have the distinction of being manually or automatically wound.

A manual wind watch needs to be wound every time the mainspring runs out (i.e. the watch stops running). Twisting the crown is the only way to wind a manual wind watch, and the crown will hit a distinct stopping point when the watch is fully wound. Manual wind watches can be damaged if forcibly over-wound. Every watch in Vortic’s American Artisan Series is manually wound.

An automatic watch has a weighted rotor that winds the watch by harnessing gravity. The rotor wants to be as close to the ground as possible, so when the watch is worn, the motion of your wrist causes the rotor to spin. This is important because when the rotor spins it winds the mainspring. Theoretically, if you wear an automatic watch every day then you will never have to wind it. Automatic watches can also be wound by turning the crown (just like a manual wind watch), but the crown on an automatic watch has no distinct stopping point and can be wound forever without damaging the mainspring.