Watch Winder - Durability?
I've had watch winders many years ago purchased from Ebay and Amazon and they never lasted very long. Since then I've never considered getting a new one because I assumed the durabaility was terrible - unless you spent a ton of money. Does anybody have experience with the reasonably priced ($200-300) multi watch winders and how long have they lasted?
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The first question I would ask is, do you need one? Some people love having them, others like myself, do not really have a need. I tried some, but ultimate end up giving them away. Comes down to preference of course. One day when I eventually add a perpetual calendar I will pick one up again.
Watch winders are one of those devices that you truly get what you pay for. You may get lucky and have one last a while, otherwise due the complexity of constantly moving, the wear and tear does a number on the cheap ones. Throw in the fact inexpensive ones have been known to magnetize watches, you are rolling the dice with the Amazon, eBay, and Ali brands.
I know these are generally out of that range, but where you can stick with Wolf, Orbita, and perhaps Barrington. You may be able to get a used one on eBay. For the money, I really like what Boxy does. You can pick one up for $100-$125 and stack them.
Perhaps others on here may have some others brands they like that lasted longer. Best of luck!
Issue with cheap winders is magnetization, I have a wolf, after 13+ years of service it started to have problems couple of weeks ago, where the TPD buttons stopped working. I was going to open it up and check but a friend of mine was looking for a project and he kindly offered to help. He was able to fix the issue, all he did was take it apart and put it back and the buttons started working again. I only use the winders for calendars and nothing else, even then odd months I have to manually set the calendar. Right now I have 3 calendars on my 3 winder Wolf and it ticking along just fine.. 13+ years and worth every penny imho. If you do not have any calendars then you do not really need a winder.. if you want something to display your watches may be consider a watch tree?
I found that even winders in the £200 range pack up. I tend to get simple ones that I can daisychain. When the motor dies (and they do) I crack it open and replace it with AliExpress winder motor (I tend to buy a few at a time as they are cheap)