Bey-Berk "President" Watch Winder - 4 Winding Positions on Two Rotors, 5 Watch Storage Case, Black leather with Locking Clasp

The opening note

There is a point in a collection where the watches stop being one thing you own and start being a set of decisions. Which one today. Which one has stopped. Which one you last wore to something that mattered, and whether it is still on the right date.

Nine watches live in this case. Four of them turn, two on each of the two rotors behind a glass door you can drop open with a finger. Five more lie flat in the tray above, under a lid, on grey velour. It is wrapped in black leather and it closes with a clasp that locks — not against a burglar, but against a curious houseguest and a cleaner's elbow.

What a case like this really does is end the small daily negotiation. The ones you wear are wound and set and ready. The ones you don't are together, in order, where you can see them at a glance rather than opening four boxes to find the one you want.

What it holds

Room for the watches you keep running, the ones that only come out for the wedding, and the spare strap you have been meaning to fit for a year.

A note on the number

You will see this winder described as delivering over 4,300 rotations a day. It is an accurate figure, and every seller of the piece quotes it. It is often called 'Turns Per Day': TPD. A modern automatic movement needs somewhere around 650 full rotations in twenty-four hours to stay wound, and that one figure covers the large majority of what people own. Some chronograph movements ask nearer 800. Nothing in ordinary circulation asks for four thousand.

So 4,300 is a description of the machine, not a measure of what your watch needs. It tells you this winder runs continuously rather than working in short cycles and resting between them — the design most winders in this band use, and a sound one. There is an inexpensive way to bring it closer to what a movement actually wants, and we set it out below.

Specifications

Capacity

4 winding positions, carried on 2 rotors — two watches to a rotor

5 storage slots in the top compartment, with room for accessories alongside

Cushion size and wrist fit: Not stated by the manufacturer.

Movement

Turns per day: rated at over 4,300 rotations a day.

TPD range: Not stated by the manufacturer. A single total is published rather than an adjustable range — see the note above.

Direction: selectable — single or dual direction.

Direction settings: Not stated by the manufacturer. If you need to know which way "single" turns, ask us and we will find out for you.

Programs and intervals: Not stated by the manufacturer.

Motor noise: Not stated by the manufacturer.

Case

Exterior: 9"H × 12.75"W × 6.5"D

7.8 lbs

Genuine black leather over a rigid case

Interior: soft grey velour throughout

Glass: glazed top lid over the storage tray, glazed drop-front door over the rotors

Lock: locking clasp

Power

AC mains, with DC backup power.

Adapter, voltage and plug type: Not stated by the manufacturer.

The rest

Warranty: Not stated by the manufacturer.

Manufacturer part number: BB605BLK

Model name: "President"

Finish: black leather, grey velour

A note on the figures above. The case size is published as 12.75 × 6.5 × 9 without labels, as is usual in this trade. We have read that as width, depth and height and quoted it in our own house order.

Two rotors, four watches, and how to pair them

This is the thing to understand before you buy, and no listing we have seen explains it — including the ones that simply say "four."

The four winding positions are not four independent winders. They are two rotors, each carrying two watches, and each rotor is one moving part. Whatever direction and rate that rotor is set to, both watches on it receive. You cannot give one watch a clockwise-only cycle and its neighbour a counter-clockwise one; they share a cushion and they share a motor.

For most collections this costs you nothing at all. The great majority of modern automatics are bidirectional and want roughly the same thing, so four watches on dual direction is four watches correctly wound. It matters in one case: if you own a Valjoux 7750 chronograph — a movement inside a great many watches that never mention it — convention says clockwise-only. Put that watch on a rotor with something that wants the other direction and one of the two is being served badly.

The practical answer is to pair by movement rather than by looks. Put the two that want the same thing together on one rotor, and the odd one out with something equally undemanding on the other. It takes five minutes with two manuals and then you never think about it again. If you would like a hand working out which of yours belong together, tell us what they are — this is exactly the sort of question we are here for.

Leather, velour, and what the weight tells you

Bey-Berk describe the exterior as genuine leather, which is the trade's term for real hide rather than a bonded or coated substitute. The grade is not named, which is ordinary for the category. What you can see for yourself is how it is made: the hide is wrapped over a rigid case rather than stretched over a soft frame, which is why the corners stay square and the drop-front door closes onto its seat instead of drifting out of true.

Inside is soft grey velour, floor and walls and the underside of both lids. This is the part that earns its keep quietly. A steel bracelet dragged across a bare surface will mark it once and mark itself many times; velour is chosen because it gives before the watch does. It also holds dust rather than pushing it around, which is why the interior of a good case looks better after two years than the outside does.

The weight is worth reading honestly. Seven and a half pounds is a substantial desk object and a trivial thing to carry off. That is not a criticism of the piece — it is the whole nature of the category, and the reason the next section says what it says.

 What your watches are asking for, and what to do about 4,300

Every automatic movement has a figure and a direction. The figure is the turns per day it needs; the direction is the way its rotor winds — clockwise, counter-clockwise, or either. Most modern movements are bidirectional and want around 650 TPD. The Valjoux 7750 is conventionally wound clockwise-only at around 800. Your watch's maker publishes both, and they take a minute to find.

This winder gives you the direction and not the rate. What follows from that is less alarming than it sounds. A mainspring cannot be overwound in the sense people mean by the word — once it is full, a slipping bridle lets the barrel turn on without loading it further, and the watch is in no danger. What excessive winding does instead is keep that bridle slipping, hour after hour, on a watch that was already full by breakfast. Nobody can honestly tell you it costs a year of service life. It is simply more work than the movement was ever asked to do.

The remedy costs about fifteen dollars, and we would rather you knew it than not. Put the winder on a plug-in outlet timer — the mechanical sort sold for lamps — and give it four to six hours a day. That works out between roughly 700 and 1,100 turns: comfortably more than a movement needs, and a quarter of what the winder would otherwise deliver. A great many collectors do exactly this, with winders at every price.

On the maker

Bey-Berk was founded in 1981 and works out of Chatsworth, California — two families, Beylerian and Berksanlar, whose names are the company's. It is run now by the founders' sons. The catalogue is broad: watch and jewelry storage, desk pieces, travel cases, bar and cigar accessories, better than a thousand items across twelve categories, sold through department stores and specialty retailers rather than under someone else's label.

The "President" is the largest of their leather winders and the one that answers the most common problem in a growing collection — that the winder and the watch box are usually two separate objects competing for the same corner of a dresser. Putting the storage above the rotors, under its own lid, is a simple idea done properly.

A word on the blanks in our specification above. Bey-Berk sell through department stores and fine gift retailers, where what a customer wants to know is what the piece is made of and how it will look — and on that their catalogue is complete. A collector's questions are different ones: which way "single" turns, whether the motor rests, what the cushions measure. If one of them matters to your choice, ask us, and we will go to Bey-Berk for the answer rather than invent it here.

Questions

How many watches does it actually hold?

Nine. Four wind, on two rotors carrying two watches each; five more sit in the tray above, which also has room for a strap, a pair of cufflinks or your reading glasses. The listings that say "four watch winder" are counting winding positions, not rotors — both numbers are true, and the two-watches-to-a-rotor arrangement is the part that usually goes unsaid.

Can I wind two watches that want different directions?

Not on the same rotor. Pair them so that the two sharing a rotor want the same thing — see the pairing section above, and ask us if you would like help sorting yours.

What is the DC backup for?

It lets the winder keep running from a DC source rather than dropping out when the mains does. The adapter, voltage and plug details are not published, so if you are planning anything unusual — a battery pack, a car, an off-grid supply — ask us first and we will confirm before you buy.

Is the lock any real protection?

Against a guest, a child or a lid springing open, yes. Against a burglary, no, and we would not want you to think otherwise. A leather case weighing under eight pounds is a carry-out. Keep the collection you wear here and the pieces you could never replace in a safe.

Is it quiet enough for a bedroom?

We do not know, and we would rather say so than guess — motor noise is not published for this model. What we can tell you is that a continuously running winder hums continuously, which is one more argument for putting it on a timer set to run while you are out of the room.

How do I look after the leather?

A soft dry cloth, regularly, and that is genuinely most of it. No solvents, no silicone, no household polish. Keep it out of direct sunlight and off a radiator — heat and UV are what dry and crack a hide, far more than use ever does. Check the power connection and your rotation setting when you dust it, and it will ask nothing else of you.