Best practice: how often do you wind your watches?

I sometimes will keep a watch wound (by hand) when I know I’ll be wearing it soon. Usually I don’t, though. From everything I’ve read, there are just too many variables involved, and those variables do a lot more to affect the health of the movement than keeping it wound or letting it run down. Winding your watch or not probably won’t make much difference if you treat it like a tool and not a display piece. Because of that, those outside factors also make it pretty much impossible to say which (if either) is a better practice. 

Often discussed topic but no real clear answer.  Use your watches as they fit your lifestyle  and needs; when they stop keeping accurate time consider servicing is what I abide by.

Wear your watches in rotation if possible. The oils will only see major effects if sat for long periods of time. I strongly recommend keeping Rolex off winders due to excessive wear on the rotor axle. 90% of Rolexs I see that have been on a winder need the axle replaced and most have damage to the plates and rotor from a worn axle. 

I have only a single automatic watch but I wind it every single day in the evening. It has become a bit of a ritual to sit down for a bit and wind the watch.

I just wind mine/give the automatic ones a kick-start when I put them on in the morning, and I think thats just fine. Guess it all depends what you consider letting it sit for a 'long' time period - 6 months, a year, 5 years?  

I have one watch box that I use for the watches I am wearing in my rotation, and I keep the mechanical watches in that box wound, as I am wearing them pretty regularly. I then rotate watches in and out of this box, so only the watches I am wearing regularly get wound. I let watches run down when I rotate them out of my main box. 

Not sure if I am doing more harm than good with this method, but for me this seems to strike a balance between letting them sit too long and wearing out the gears from too much hand-winding.

I have considered investing in a watch winder, but the mixed feedback on using them makes me a bit hesitant to buy and use one.

I try to wear them all but if I see one that hasn't been worn for a month I'll give it a wind.

Many contend that , given the life span of sythetic oils used today, a watch can sit at least a couple of years and not suffer damage. There are many stories of watches going years w/out a service and still run well.

Hey there. What about being on a winder damages an automatic watch yet a person can wear them every day and not have the same issue?

Hi, if you wear a Rolex everyday you'll encounter the same amount of wear. If you leave on a winder you're needlessly adding that amount of wear. Ultimately it's up to the end user, but with most watches it's fairly simple to set. On a watch like a 1803 it may be more convenient to put it on a winder, but you need to be in top of keeping that watch serviced.

I wind my watches each morning before I wear them out for the day, otherwise they sit idle in the watch box/safe.  
 

I take this 60 seconds or so each morning to think about the day and what I’d like to do with the time I have.  To each their own.

I dont know and i suppose theres no definitive answer to that. Personally i have close to 30 pieces and probably 10 in active rotation on daily bases, for the rest that dont get much wrist time i generally wind them gently to 100% (besides the really old manual wind watches, generally just give around 10 turns on the crown) once every two weeks or so.

Bought a watch winder, but eventually left it untouched in the drawer as it just some cheaply made winding box, i doubt it was designed properly to shield off the magnetic flux, which ultimately do more harm than good to watches. 

I honestly don't know which method is better, or if there is any real notable difference. For me, I just wind a watch before it gets worn. I rotate through my watches at least once a month, so they all get fairly regular use. I don't own any high-end luxury watches, so I guess I'm less concerned, though I do try to take care of them.

I would like to say that I wind up my watches on a regular basis and I do try to give my automatics a good old "Seiko shuffle" from time to time if I haven't worn them in a while but if I'm really being honest here, I have too many watches and not enough time to really keep up with that. I do go through periods where I do pretty good with that or just rotating through my collection and wearing different ones but I generally seem to end up getting stuck on one that becomes a favorite until I find a new watch to buy and start the affair all over again. There's always that fear in the back of my head that I'm hurting the watches I haven't worn or wound in a while by letting them sit inactive and that is usually when I go on a winding spree. It's a vicious cycle...

I let them sit. Only wind the watch that I am currently using. Seems to work fine to be honest…..

I have a rule to wind each watch once per month. About half of them are also on the wrist within that time.

First i wore my 2 Poljots (Buran and Blue Angels) alot for 3-4 years, then they were in the drawer for 10 years, then i took the Buran out again and occasionally wore it again. 

Now my Buran is 20 years old, and still works normal .....
(sold the Blue Angels)

That said, with my newer watches i tend to wind them up every few months, if i haven't worn them.