doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Mechanical watches and shotgun recoil?

I had a Victorinox auto winder and it only lasted 5 months. I replaced it with a Tissot and I am wondering if shotgun recoil is detrimental to a mechanical watch,specifically an automatic?

Does anyone have any experience or information to share?

Thanks,
CHAZ

I've worn mechanicals for decades and none has given it up to recoil. I'd guess that golf might be rougher, boxing too.

Recoil has not effected the mechanical ebaushe used in any of my Zodiacs. I own a Marine Life and a Super Sea Wolf, both early 1990s vintage. It is a standard Swiss made automatic movement used in many watches from Europe.
I also have a Zodiac Sea Wolf with a quartz movement, that I have used for most of 20 years, that would have given up long ago if it was sensitive to shotgun recoil.
From about 1977 until 1990, I used a Japanese self winder, that was simply indestructable, that saw plenty of shotgun recoil. It still runs today.
I haven't seen a good watch quit from being used.

Best,
Ted

Thanks for the confidence. The Victorinox that I had briefly was an expensive watch (to me) and it was supposed to have a top shelf Swiss movement. I was just trying to think of what I might have done that could have led to its early demise.

Thanks again,
CHAZ

I have an old Rolex that I have worn for the past 15 years. My guess is that it has seen around 200,000 shots, 12 gauge 3.5 to 410, no problems.
bill

I would submit the notion that a good watch doesn't get replaced-it gets repaired. Zodiac watches were never top tier in Swiss watches, but, my Father's Sea Wolf, purchased in the Okinawa PX in 1962 and worn almost every day of his life until spring of 2009, was repaired/overhauled twice. It was used and abused by deep sea fishing, hunting, storming the beeches with infantry, and whatever else my Dad had going on in his life, and I still own it today. It is no longer being used, but, it could be.

Best,
Ted

Don't know about other brands, but Rolex specified annual clean/lube on my circa 1973 Oyster Cosmograph mechanical. Three years of service at the Rolex-approved shop here in the U.S. exceeded the cost of the watch as purchased in Switzerland, so I started extending the maintenance intervals. Now it's a wall hanger.

I am a big believer in �if it is not broke don�t fix it� the watch on the right was a twenty first present some forty years a go now and the other I acquired on life�s journey. Number of services between the two �zero� I put the watch on the right on most days the other on the days in between. I am sure a gun recoil is far far less than life�s knocks and bangs.

If they are keeping good time, I don't generally mess with them, either. My watchmaker uses a synthetic lube of some sort, and when I asked how long it held up for, he told me "more years than either of us have left".
Sad, but true.

Best,
Ted

Some older watches it does affect the winding spring.I have a Vintage Rolex and the winding spring is like a fine hair as far as thickness and if I shoot double trap the spring will tangle