Beginner - new IWC Portofino - noise on winding

Good evening folks,

I have recently joined the ranks of automatic watchdom, with a new Portofino (IW356501), and must say I'm completely smitten.

In many ways it's so far, so good - the watch looks incredible, keeps excellent time and seems incredibly well built.

I was expecting a host of strange noises, being my first movement watch, and talked through some of them with the AD when I collected the watch. Since getting it home, using, winding and re-setting the watch, there is only one that bugs me slightly:

When manual winding, occasionally turning the crown clockwise (in the correct 0 position) elicits a fairly sharp 'ping', as if a spring is releasing, rather than the usual slight resistance of winding. Is this normal? Is it the clutch to stop over-winding of the automatic movement? I have only heard the 'ping' 2-3 times.

Clearly the automatic winding is doing its job; I am only investigating the manual winding as I like to know everything about things I own.

Also please accept my apologies; this has probably been covered in detail before, but I carried out a fair few forum searches and found plenty of things about noises on winding, but nothing that quite matches this.

All help gratefully received, and I look forward to many happy years with my (first!) IWC.

Andy

After how many turns of the crown did the PING occur?

An unwound IWC requires about 30 turns to power up the mainspring and the automatic winding system will keep The power up. Do you think you overwound it?

My first IWC and still in love it. Congratulation to it.

Regarding the "ping", not sure what exactly is meant here but I have noticed one thing when winding this watch manually.

Sometimes, the rotor and thus the whole winding mechanism stops at "unusual" position (I think). Like half way up over the tooth or how to call it :o) Trying to wind with the crown in that position gives more resistance so I do not do it. I'd rather turn the whole watch in the hand first to make the rotor turn to other position, move the winding system and the let "tooth and clasp to sit". Then it's again easy to wind manually. (soory if the english terminology is not right here.)

This occured to me quite recently so I just thought it's may be time to let the watch be checked for lubrication after 2 years but as you mention that for quite a new one, I do not know.

In every case, this model is very loud (not to say noisy :o) in comparison to other automats even after two years. On the other hand, the case is not that thick so I take it as all right.

Thanks for the responses!

Mark - hard to say after how many turns it first occurred. The guy in the AD wound the watch for me after taking it out of the box. He actually did so by rotating the crown only ~1/4 turn clockwise before rocking back anticlockwise - so essentially ratcheting it rather than rotating it fully. He might well have done 50 1/4-turns. After this he handed it to me and I did some quarter-turns and full turns, and heard the small but distinct ping or twang (perhaps not as loud as my first post might have suggested, on second thoughts). Since then, I have done numerous rotations of up to 10 at a time. The twang is intermittent at best.

Marian - interesting comments. I hadn't been noting the position of the rotor when winding. It could be that it interferes with the manual winder. There is indeed more resistance than normal prior to a ping/twang.

I shall check with the AD. In any case I've done nothing outwith the operating instructions, so if it is a fault, I trust all can be rectified.

Cheers,
Andy

Hi Andy,
It's really impossible to say what is going on, not experiencing the occurrence personally.

I would be inclined to say that if you are wearing the watch AND winding it daily with 10 turns of the crown, it is very possible that the watch is being overwound! So, for the time being, don't manually wind it anymore. It won't need it while being worn and it will have enough power reserve to see it through the night even if you take it off before retiring.

Next time you are in the vicinity of the AD, try and repeat the circumstances that caused the PING for him and he will have an answer for you.