You've packed your bags, sorted your travel documents, and now you're standing in front of your watch collection with a familiar dilemma: which watches are coming with you, and what happens to the ones staying behind?
It's a question that sounds simple but has more layers than most collectors expect — especially if your collection includes automatic watches, high-value pieces, or both.
The Short Answer
Yes — automatic watches need winding on holiday. Or more precisely, they need movement. If they don't get it, they stop. And if they stop for long enough, you'll come home to a collection of watches showing the wrong time, wrong date, and in some cases, incorrect complications that take time and care to reset correctly.
The question isn't really whether they need winding. It's how you handle it — whether you take them with you, leave them in a winder, or accept the inconvenience of resetting on your return.
What Happens When an Automatic Watch Stops
Automatic watches are powered by a mainspring that's tensed by the motion of a rotor. Wear the watch, and the rotor spins with your wrist movement, keeping the mainspring wound. Leave it unworn, and the power reserve gradually depletes — typically over 38 to 70 hours depending on the movement.
When the power reserve runs out, the watch stops. This is not harmful in itself — it's a normal state for a mechanical watch. The issue is what happens next.
Restarting a stopped watch requires manual winding and resetting the time and date. For a simple watch, this takes a minute. For a watch with a GMT complication, a day/date display, or a perpetual calendar, it can take considerably longer — and incorrect setting of certain complications can cause damage if done at the wrong point in the movement's cycle.
Repeated stopping and restarting also means repeated crown operation, which is one of the more wear-prone interactions on a mechanical watch. Over years, this adds up. Read more: Understanding How an Automatic Watch Movement Works.
Taking Watches on Holiday: The Travel Case Question
If you're taking watches with you, the first consideration is protection in transit. Watches in luggage — even carry-on — are exposed to knocks, pressure changes, and the general chaos of travel. A dedicated luxury watch travel case is not an optional extra; it's basic protection for objects that cost thousands of pounds.
A good travel case holds each watch individually, with cushioned slots that prevent movement and contact between pieces. It protects the crystal, the case, and the bracelet from scratches and impacts. For air travel, it keeps your watches accessible for security checks without the risk of damage from being loose in a bag.
There's also a security consideration. A watch travel case that looks like a watch travel case is not ideal for checked luggage — it advertises its contents. The best travel cases are discreet, robust, and designed to look like ordinary luggage accessories rather than jewellery boxes.
How many watches to take: The honest answer is fewer than you think. Most collectors find that two or three watches cover every occasion on a typical holiday — a sports watch for daytime, a dress watch for evenings, and perhaps a travel watch with a GMT function for tracking home time. The rest are better left at home, properly stored.
The Watches You Leave Behind
This is where the real planning happens. If you're leaving automatic watches at home for a week or two, you have two options: accept that they'll stop and reset them on your return, or keep them wound with a watch winder.
For a single watch, stopping and resetting is a minor inconvenience. For a collection of three, four, or more automatics — particularly if any have complex complications — a winder is the practical solution. It keeps every watch running correctly while you're away, so you come home to a collection that's ready to wear rather than a resetting exercise.
There's also the question of where you leave them. Watches left in a standard watch box while you're away are unprotected and, if your home is unoccupied, potentially at risk. A watch winder safe solves both problems simultaneously — your watches are wound and secured, whether you're in the next room or on the other side of the world.
For collectors with pieces on the TPD register, leaving high-value watches in a secured winder safe while travelling is the responsible approach. Your insurance may also require it — some policies have conditions around the storage of high-value items when a property is unoccupied for more than a specified period.
Matching Winder Settings Before You Leave
If you're using a winder while you travel, it's worth taking five minutes before you leave to confirm the settings are correct for each watch. The key variables are:
Turns per day (TPD): Each automatic movement has a recommended TPD range. Too few turns and the watch may stop; too many and you risk unnecessary wear on the mainspring. Most quality winders allow you to set this precisely — check your watch manufacturer's specifications or the movement calibre documentation. See our full guide: How Many Turns Per Day Does Your Watch Need? TPD Guide by Brand.
Rotation direction: Some movements wind clockwise only, some counter-clockwise, some bi-directional. Running a watch in the wrong direction won't necessarily damage it immediately, but it's inefficient and can cause unnecessary rotor wear over time.
Power reserve consideration: If you're leaving for two weeks, start with the watch fully wound before placing it in the winder. This gives the movement the best possible starting point and reduces the load on the winder motor in the first 24 hours.
Coming Home
If you've left your watches in a winder safe, coming home is simple — your collection is exactly as you left it, wound, set, and ready. Pick up whichever watch suits the day and carry on.
If you've left watches stopped in a box, set aside 20–30 minutes to restart and reset each one properly. Wind each watch manually before setting the time and date, and be careful with any complications — particularly date mechanisms, which should only be set outside the “danger zone” of approximately 9pm to 3am on the watch's internal cycle.
Either way, a holiday is a good moment to assess your storage setup. If resetting four watches on your return felt like a chore, a winder is the answer. If you felt uneasy leaving valuable pieces in an unsecured box while your home was empty, a winder safe is worth serious consideration. Read: How to Store a Watch Collection: Winders, Boxes, Cases & Safes Compared.
The Bottom Line
Automatic watches don't wind themselves on holiday — they need either your wrist or a winder. The watches you take with you need a proper travel case for protection in transit. The ones you leave behind need either a winder to keep them running or a winder safe to keep them running and secure.
The good news is that the right setup makes the whole question disappear. Pack your travel case, set your winder safe, and enjoy the holiday — your collection will be exactly where you left it when you get back.
Browse our full range of luxury watch travel cases, watch winders, and watch winder safes — built for collectors who travel as seriously as they collect.
0 comments