Friday, August 13

When Time Didn't Continue If Not For A Mainspring

Well, this has had me stymied.

Of late, I've been noticing that either folks really don't read instruction manuals any more, or they don't understand the intricacies of fine craftsmanship. More likely the latter.

OK, so maybe that's a bit too harsh.

Anyway.

Dear readers, I don't know who you are. For the most part, anyway. Sure, I know who reads my blog on a regular basis. But there are those who find my blog via other means, namely search engines. Those I know, since Clicky tells me so. A couple of weeks ago, an interesting search came from somewhere in Texas - specifically, the search was "changing battery on Stauer 1930s Dashtronic".

Yes.

I'd mentioned this to Mike "from work"; he said maybe whomever this was had gotten it as a gift sans original packaging, or even maybe from a pawn shop. And did not know the watch had to be wound.

I'd kept that incident in the back of my mind, but decided not to comment on it since it likely would be a one-time deal.

That is, until very early yesterday morning.

Someone from Modesto, California did a search for "dashtronic stops running".

Puhleeeze.

From the instruction manual at Stauer's website is this:

"Before the watch is worn for the first time, wind the crown, by hand, 15 to 20 cycles by rolling the crown clockwise (away from you) while in the “0” (zero) position."

Beyond that, interestingly enough, the watch is self-winding. I say "interestingly enough" due to that information not being expressly mentioned anywhere other than as "automatic" in Stauer's literature. My Dad had a self-winding Waltham watch - which I still have to this day - that would always be wound, as he (and I) were always driving for work. I imagine someone with a desk job would find the watch would "run down" if not for some occasional wrist movements.

For me, my Dashtronic needs to be wound first thing Monday morning, but due to all the motions during the week, I don't again need to "jump start" it until the next Monday.

It's a ritual I don't mind in the least.

So, dear readers, the Dashtronic needs to be wound. It doesn't have a battery. And it being automatic, you need to move your wrist.

...from time to time.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Mike from work says, quoting George Carlin, "I don't know whether to shit or wind my watch, so, I'll shit on my watch."

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Unknown said...

Hey Bob, a bit of info to clear this up. I have three of these Stauer watches. Two 1930 Dashtronics, one gold fused one stainless, and a 1938 Dashtronic Roadmaster gold fused. The latter is indeed a quartz watch, so it is likely that is the Dashtronic the person from Texas is referring to.

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