Seiko kinetic winder

[HectorLooi]

I have an old Seiko AGS watch, which I inherited from my father. This was the precursor to Kinetic watches. It uses a gold capacitor to store electrical energy, unlike modern kinetic watches that use a rechargeable lithium battery.

The downside is that a gold capacitor only stores enough energy for about 48 hours. I'm not sure if the generator of my watch is wirking properly but the movement from normal everyday activities is not enough to keep the capacitor charged up.

Regular automatic watch winders just don't have enough speed to wind a Seiko Kinetic watch. A special charger for the Seiko Kinetic on eBay costs around $350.

I wasn't going to spend that kind of money just for charging Kinetic watches.

I managed to use a wireless charger from an old electric toothbrush for charging my Kinetic but it was rather fiddly. The coil of the generator had to be placed in a sweet spot over the coil of the toothbrush charger for it to work properly. If it wasn't placed properly, the watch just wouldn't charge.

Then recently, I discovered that a cheap charger from AliExpress had enough kinetic energy to charge a Kinetic.

The plate swings 'violently' enough to charge up the capacitor. An hour of violent swinging is enough to give the watch a full charge.

So far I'm happy with this winder. It lets me enjoy my Kinetic again.

A short gif to show how violent the swinging gets. 

[fclass308]

Thanks for that information. I ordered a similar one from Amazon for $18. My beloved SUN-025 Sportura Kinetic doesn't get enough wrist time and I am hoping this will do the job and keep the capacitor charged. We shall see.