March 14, 2022

How to wind your Automatic GMT Watch

A common misconception with automatic watches is that they will automatically wind themselves all the time. This is only really true if you wear them every single day - the mechanism is wound ‘automatically’ by the movement of its owner.

So if you’ve left it on the side for a few days, you’ll find that the hands have stopped moving.

If you want to know a little more about how automatic watches work you can read

our article all about the different types of watches.

1 - Don’t wind the watch on your wrist

OK, so there’s worse things you can do - but winding your mechanical watch while it’s on your wrist can strain the arm on the crown, and shorten the life of the movement of your watch.

Better to wind it while it’s still in your hands - if you’re winding it, chances are you’ve just picked it up anyway, so no big deal.

2 - Wind the dial clockwise for about a minute

While the crown is still all the way into the watch, wind the dial forwards around 30-40 times. Depending on how efficient you are this might take you 30-60 seconds.

3 - Pull the crown out once to set the date

The crown on your CuleM pulls out twice - once to set the date and GMT hand, and again for the time. Pull the crown out once and turn it counterclockwise to move the date forwards, and clockwise to move the GMT hand - although you may want to skip this step and come back to it, I’ll tell you why in #5.

Change the date

Change the second time zone

4 - Pull the crown to position 2 to set the time

Clockwise, counter-clockwise, for once it doesn’t matter too much. Adjust the hands to the right time, then click the crown back into place and the hands should start moving.

If they don’t go back to step two, but don’t feel like you need to wind for quite as long. You can’t overwind an automatic watch, so there’s nothing to fear here.

5 - A sneaky time-saving tip

Personally, I find it’s easier to set the time before the date.

When you tick the time past midnight while setting the time in step 4, you advance the date forwards. If you’ve only left the watch to one side for a day or two, this probably is all you need to get it back to the right number.

How to set the GMT hand on your automatic watch

On the reverse of your CuleM GMT watch, you’ll find a window to see its automatic components - the window is beautifully framed with the uniquely accurate world time zones in 24 destinations, which can be used as a reference when using the dual time functionality.

On the outside, you’ll see the time difference from London’s Greenwich Mean Time, while the inside shows the time difference relative to British Summer Time.

When you look back to the front of your CuleM Automatic Watch, remember that the GMT hand - the one with the red tip, a homage to the red dragon of Wales, where our founder was born - is linked to the outside of the dial - showing you the time in 24hr format. The top half of the outer 24h dial is a darker colour from 1800 to 0600 representing night, and the lower half from 0600 to 1800 is a lighter colour representing day time.