An automatic wooden watch winds itself from the movement of your wrist, so it never needs a battery. We sell two, Riverstone and Woodhaven, both £250, and on both you can see the movement working through the dial and through a window in the back. Every other watch you can buy from us is quartz: it keeps better time, costs less, and keeps running when you take it off.
At a glance
- An automatic watch has no battery. A weight inside swings as your wrist moves and winds a spring, and the spring runs the watch.
- We sell two automatics: Riverstone in ebony and Woodhaven in maple. Both are £250, 45mm across and 11mm thick.
- Every other watch you can buy from us is quartz, from £75 to £150. Quartz keeps better time and does not stop when you take it off.
- An automatic stops if it sits unworn for long enough. That is normal, not a fault. Wear it and it starts again.
- Engraving is £25 for up to 50 characters on either kind. On Riverstone and Woodhaven, the words go round the window in the back.
- Every watch comes in a wooden gift box, with ten trees planted through Tree-Nation, a 2-year warranty, 90-day returns and free UK delivery.
What is an automatic wooden watch?
It is a wooden watch with a mechanical movement that winds itself. The case and the bracelet are wood. The mechanical movement sits inside the wooden case.
Inside the movement is a half-moon weight called a rotor. Every time your wrist moves, the rotor swings round and winds a spring, called the mainspring. The spring releases that energy slowly through a row of small gears, and a small wheel swinging back and forth controls how fast it runs. That is the part you can see moving through the open dial.
You will also see these called self-winding watches. A watch with an open dial like ours is often called a skeleton watch.
How is an automatic different from a quartz watch?
The difference is where the power comes from.
A quartz watch runs on a battery. The battery makes a tiny piece of quartz crystal vibrate at a fixed rate, 32,768 times a second in nearly all watches. A small circuit counts those vibrations and moves the second hand on once a second.
That makes quartz the more accurate of the two. A typical quartz watch may gain or lose around 15 seconds a month. Mechanical watches, automatics included, are not as accurate as that, so you will set an automatic a little more often. We have not timed ours, so we will not give you a figure.
What an automatic gives you in return is a movement you can watch working, and no battery to run flat.
Which Forest watches are automatic?
Two of them.
- Riverstone, £250. Ebony with a striped grain, a blue dial with gold markers, and an open centre that shows the movement. Blue bands run through the wooden bracelet.
- Woodhaven, £250. Pale maple with an open-heart dial. You choose black or gold and silver accents, and they run through the bracelet too.
Both are 45mm across and 11mm thick, on a 22mm wooden bracelet that you size with the tool in the box. On both, the movement shows through the back as well as the front.
Every other watch you can buy from us is quartz, from Scout at £75 to Windsor at £150. Each product page names its movement in the specifications table, so you can always check.
An automatic movement is built from far more small parts than a quartz one, which is why automatic watches usually cost more.
Does an automatic watch stop if you don't wear it?
Yes, after a while. The spring can only store so much energy. Many automatics run for roughly two days when fully wound. We have not timed Riverstone or Woodhaven, so treat that as a rough guide, not a promise.
When it stops, nothing is wrong. Gently move it from side to side to wind it, or put it on, then set the time once it is running.
A new automatic may arrive stopped after sitting unworn in its box. That is normal too.
If you want a watch that keeps running while it sits in a drawer, quartz is the better choice.
Does an automatic watch need a battery or a service?
It never needs a battery.
It does need a different kind of care. Like any mechanical watch, an automatic runs best with a clean and an adjustment now and then. A quartz watch needs a new battery every few years instead. Change it when it stops, rather than leaving a flat one inside.
Forest Care covers one full service on a Forest watch for £25, whenever you need it. On a quartz watch that means a fresh battery, fitted and tested. On Riverstone and Woodhaven, which have no battery, the movement is checked and regulated instead. Either way the wood is cleaned and re-oiled and the bracelet refitted. You post it to our London workshop and we pay the tracked postage home.
Manufacturing faults are covered free for two years by the warranty, on both kinds.
Can you engrave an automatic watch with a see-through back?
An engraving example on a Riverstone back. The wood grain varies from watch to watch.
Yes. On Riverstone and Woodhaven the movement shows through a window in the middle of the back, so we engrave your words in the metal around it, clear of the window.
Everything else is the same as on any Forest watch. It is £25 for up to 50 characters, over as many as three lines, laser-engraved in our London workshop before the watch is sent. When you add engraving on the product page, the preview lays your words out around the window. It is a guide, so the final size and placement can vary a little. An engraved watch can still be sent back within 90 days.
For wording, fonts and examples, see engraving at Forest.
Is an automatic wooden watch more delicate?
Our automatic and quartz watches have the same 3 ATM splash-resistance rating: rain and washing your hands are fine, swimming, showers and the sea are not. The full answer is in can you get a wooden watch wet.
Treat it as you would any wooden watch, and take it off for the gym, DIY and anything with repeated knocks.
Is an automatic wooden watch a good gift?
It suits someone who wears a watch every day and likes to see how things work. The movement is on show through the dial, and there is no battery to change.
Quartz is the better gift for someone who wears a watch now and then, because it keeps running when it isn't worn and needs setting less often. It is also the choice for a smaller wrist. Both our automatics are 45mm across, while our quartz watches start at 28mm. How a wooden watch should fit shows how to measure a wrist with a strip of paper.
Wood is the traditional gift for a fifth wedding anniversary. Whichever watch you choose arrives in a wooden gift box, and we plant ten trees through Tree-Nation for every watch. How we plant ten trees per watch shows where they go.
How do automatic and quartz wooden watches compare?
| Automatic | Quartz | |
|---|---|---|
| What powers it | Your wrist winds a spring | A battery |
| Battery | None | A new one every few years |
| Timekeeping | Less accurate; set it more often | A typical quartz watch may gain or lose around 15 seconds a month |
| Left off the wrist | Stops after a while; wear it to restart | Keeps running |
| At Forest | Riverstone and Woodhaven, £250 | Every other watch, £75 to £150 |
| Case size at Forest | 45mm | From 28mm |
| Engraving | £25, words go round the window | £25, on the back |
| Forest Care, £25 | Movement checked and regulated | Fresh battery fitted and tested |
So which should you choose?
Choose an automatic if you want to see the movement working and never need a battery.
Choose quartz for a smaller case, a lower price and less frequent time-setting. Every watch in the men's wooden watches collection except Riverstone and Woodhaven is quartz, and so is every watch in the women's wooden watches collection.
