Winter watch charging

Just don’t hook up too many, or the authorities might think you’re an entrepreneur and strictly indoor only grower!

Does it have to be a grow lamp? That also generates heat, or is that combination the key? I don't have any solar watches, so I'm curious. Doesn't a led light do the job?

I use a grow lamp because they are 'supposed' to have a similar spectrum of light compared to sunlight so that the watches have the best chance, there's no heat - or very minimal heat to speak of and it does seem to do the job of keeping things charged or topping them up.

I live in France in a house so better light conditions. I make my solar sunbathing once a month by the window or anywhere there is a sunray in the house

My wife turns crazy everytime "watches...They are eveywhere... 🤯"

Ah....would you like me to extol the benefits of living near the equator? Free sunshine all the time! Muahahaha!

Laughs in summer weight clothes while sipping virgin mint julep

No thanks 😄 I like living in a country where we have 1cm of snow and it's like the world has ended, then it melts and everything floods, in the summer the roads melt and the train tracks warp, nah, you can keep your equatorial climate, I enjoy living on my toes! 😄 😄 😄

I haven't reached yet the madness of growing solar watches on a plantation, I only have two. And one of the two is in my Giftschrank (poison cabinet) of watches too ugly to be worn again, the North Edge Evocque. The other is my much prettier Accurist 7334, and the last time I rotated it back into circulation it had indeed ran out of juice and it took me a bit to bring it back to life.

I am torn whether I want that to be ready for action all the time or not, but if I did I'd simply place it on a window sill. Even in that foul weather we had this week in the UK it would pick up enough light to keep going. I realise that this is not a solution for the avid collector of solar watches, unless you have a lot of window-sill real estate at your disposal.

But, releated to that: is it actually damaging to your solar watch (or its capacitor) to let it run out of power and recharge when to-be-worn?

I have a couple of solar powered watches but I don't charge them artificially, only if they need to be charged. Usually their batteries last longer than the dark, cloudy Bulgarian winter and have enough juice to work fine. When there's a nice sunny day I just leave them by the window and let them charge a little.

• One 1cm of snow? You got to be kidding me🤣 This is my backyard

  

The UK would completely stop, there would be panic buying of everything from toilet paper to pasta and it would be front page news forever! 😄 Schools would shut, all travel impossible for weeks 😄

Well I guess this is normal for us in Finland😂

The real reason I was thinking about these grow lamps is that my plants are doing just fine with led lights.

They're looking really good!

If it's not broken, don't fix it! 😄

You're not alone! 😛

I am teaching at Uni in the UK, and one rather wintery day I showed up, with the building closed, and me and my Russian and Ukrainian and Baltic students were baffled what was going on.

The only thing we're good at about the weather in the UK is talking about it!

Only have 2 solar watches so about once a month, they get a day or two on the windowsill in direct sunlight, keeps them topped off and works well. Many years ago, I let one get very rundown and it took some time to get the charge up to where it needed to be. Best to give them a concentrated hit on a regular basis if they live in dark conditions a lot.

I wonder if the manufacturers have white papers on the issue - or maybe even a mention in their manuals at minimum - explaining exactly how much light is required to keep the watches putting along between wearings.

Maybe it's enough when you click on the nearby light while getting ready in the morning, then again in the evening?

I'm curious, since I just purchased my first solar (Seiko, used, sans manual). I'm going to have to do some research, but thanks for the interesting post, @Chairman_Bored .

Found my answer. That didn't take long!

I usually wear my solar watches once a week and it's enough to fully recharge them, but then sunshine isn't exactly lacking here.

I have 5 solar watches. I check them daily to see what their charge is at. I either wear them or "grow them" as well.

I can say the table @Pallet_Fork posted seems accurate. It takes about a full day to charge the watches from what I can tell, but only the Casio's really have a High-Mid-Low indicator. The rest I just have to go by the seconds hand.

Ding ding ding, we have a winner! The winner of this bout, by knockout in the first round, SOOOOOOOOLARRR!!! 😎

We live in sunny Florida/ Alabama. We will take custody and keep them at peak power. FEDEX delivers!