Orbita Sempre is Automatic Watch Winder for Manual-Wind Watches

During our annual visits to Orbita at the various watch and jewelry trade shows, we always see an impressive collection of new and existing winders of all sizes, holding anywhere from a single watch to as many as 48. And of course, the vast majority of these Orbita watch winders — and most other watch winders — are equipped to supply power to automatic (that is, self-winding) watches by rotating them at regular intervals so the rotors in the watches' movements can continually supply energy to their mainsprings. But what about watches that don't have rotors... and whose mainspring can only be wound via the watch's crown? Fortunately, thanks to Orbita's cleverly engineered Sempre model, owners of manual-wind timepieces have a winder made specifically for their needs. The Orbita Sempre is, according to the company, the only such winder on the market. It is intended to wind, without ever overwinding, virtually any manually wound mechanical watch. How this Orbita watch winder accomplishes this feat is with a system of precision collets (basically, mechanical fingers) that grasp the watch's crown and replicate the action of finger winding. As it does so, an ingenious microprocessor control senses the increasing resistance as the mainspring is being wound and automatically stops winding when the watch approaches the fully wound state.  The Orbita Sempre is in a single ($2,995) or double ($4,995) model, in either burl or black leather finish. Collectors with weary fingers from the daily ritual of keeping their watches running perpetually might wish to give these a look.

This article was originally published in 2012 and has been updated.