Automatic watches are beautiful and reliable timekeeping pieces you can add to any ensemble. Their ability to stay powered through your natural body movement makes these watches preferred by men over more traditional battery operated and hand wound watches.
However, if there is one drawback to automatic watches, it’s that they must be worn regularly to retain accurate time.
But here’s the reality:
Men wear different watches for different occasions.
This means that in most cases, there is a watch, automatic or otherwise, that often sits in a watch case waiting to be worn.
For the watch enthusiasts that want to have their automatic watches accurate down to the second, they will place their beloved watch onto a watch winder.
When it comes to deciding on watch winders, you will quickly find that there are a multitude of options out there.
From ones that can house 8 watches at once, to others that command a steep $300 price tag for a single winder.
Simply put, it can be tough to decide on a particular winder to suit your needs.
When we got our hands on the Barrington Single Winder (Crimson Red), we were (and still are) pretty excited.
The Barrington Single Winder is everything you would want in a single watch winder:
- Compact size (11cm x 11cm x 15cm)
- AC or battery powered
- Rotates clockwise, counter-clockwise, or bi-directional
- Turns Per Day (TPD) settings at 600, 750, 850, 1,000, and 1950
- Super quiet Japanese motor
- Able to chain multiple Barrington winders together (allows for easy expansion).
Seriously, its everything you really could ever want – here’s why:
The Full Unboxing & Review Of The Barrington Single Winder
Perhaps it’s been the flood of unboxing videos that have made their way on to YouTube in recent years, or maybe its been that companies are really starting to pay attention to their package design, but regardless, one thing to note about this watch winder is how secured its packed.
As you can see in the picture below, not a single ounce of space is present around the watch winder:
But why should you care?
With watch winders designed to make as little noise as possible, coupled with moving parts, anything short of perfect packaging could result in a poor performing device.
Another nice addition to this watch winder is the inclusion of the Barrington ‘Jump’ cable (pictured below). As we eluded to earlier, this allows you to daisy chain multiple Barrington winders together should you have more than one automatic watch in your collection:
Double wrapped in a linen bag coupled with an insulated liner you will find the exquisite watch winder itself:
As you can see from the pictures, the Crimson Red model that we are testing has minimalist design features. A simple white ‘Barrington’ logo printed on the side and LED indicator on the front.
Simply put, this winder feels like it came from an Apple Industrial Design studio:
On the back of the winder, you will find two power jacks, one for AC IN and an OUT outlet for the Barrington ‘Jump’ cable.
Secondly you will see the winder settings. As we mentioned earlier, this winder features 3 directional settings along with 5 TPD settings, allowing this to easily work with any automatic watch in your collection:
Secondly at the top-back of the winder, you will see a compartment for two AA batteries should you want to power this winder when AC power isn’t readily available:
Along the bottom of the Barrington Single Winder you can find 4 rubber feet. Not only will this ensure that the unit is level for perfect winding, but it also will prevent your watch winder from sliding off of a surface easily:
Lastly, the standard cushion you receive with this winder will fit men with a wrist size between 19-24cm (about 80% of men).
If you have smaller wrists, Barrington does offer a Flex Cushion for wrist sizes less than 20cm at no additional charge. The width of the cushion is more than sufficient.
In our tests we used the Jorg Gray JG8300-14 that has a case diameter of 47mm. As evident in the picture below, there was still room to spare on either side:
Lastly, the most important aspect of any watch winder will be performance and sound. While the ambient noises can be a bit tricky in NYC, we tried our best to capture the essence of this winder in a short 30 second video (best with headphones on and volume all the way up):
As you can (hardly) hear, the Japanese Motors in the Barrington winder emits a very low hum. Therefore, if you are looking to place the winder either on your dresser or night stand, it shouldn’t ever wake you up from a deep slumber.
So, with the beautiful packaging and sleek design, how does the Barrington Single Winder perform?
Incredibly good!
After a few days of testing, we found that the intermittent turns provided by the watch winder allowed us to have accuracy down to the second with our automatic watch.
In addition, we found that our automatic watch stayed snug in the winder without ever a fear that it would drop out mid-use and potentially scratch or damage the face of the watch.
Secondly, we weren’t ever worried that the Barrington Single Winder would over-wind our watch given the several TPD and directional settings.
Editor’s Note: Be sure to not only read the Barrington manual once you receive the unit, but also the manual provided by your watch manufacturer. This will ensure that you dial in the correct settings for perfect performance.
Final Thoughts On The Barrington Single Winder
Overall, Barrington puts together a fine watch winder to serve your automatic watch collection well.
The multiple TPDs and directional settings offered within the winder should accommodate any automatic watch in your collection.
Secondly, the super quiet motor won’t draw any undesired attention to the winder, allowing you to sleep easy at night while the unit winds your watch.
Overall, this is a beautifully crafted watch winder at an affordable price and fully gets the Tools of Men seal of approval.
