An automatic watch is an all mechanical watch with a mechanism that winds the internal components via the natural motion of the wearer.

In more technical terms, the watch has an offset weight that is attached to a ratchet to accomplish this feat. There are slipping parts that prevent overloading the watch's mainspring.

Most modern mechanical watches are wound in this fashion.

What you should know about vintage automatic watches:

The number of jewels in the case (indicated on the back of the watch) says a lot about the watch's overall quality. More jewels means a more durable timepiece.

A jewel is used as the turning point of the wheels in the watch. Since jewels are usually harder than metal, they are a good choice for containing something that is constantly moving - jewels are more durable.

Regardless of the watch's age, the number of jewels on the face is also a big consideration. The materials used in the band or case are also very important. Materials can range from Platinum or Gold to something that just looks like Platinum or Gold.

If you do not wear your automatic watch every day, there are ways to keep it wound. You can get an auto watch holder that rotates to approximate a moving human wrist. This way, if a watch has 'complications' such as a moon phase dial or date indicator, they, too, can be kept accurate and up to date.

In addition, it should be noted that keeping a watch running will help prevent the oil in it from gumming up prematurely.

Automatic watches were better suited to wristwatches because of the volume and type of movement. After World War I (when wristwatches caught on) was when the one-way automatic watch winder was invented.

This particular watch had an eccentric weight that moved about half circle and only wound the watch's mainspring when traveling in one direction. Springs on either side of it's travel nudged it to move to the other side.

This earlier type of automatic watch is called a 'bumper' or 'hammer' because of it's limited range of motion.

Because this early 'bumper' did not have a winding stem, the watch was set via rotating bezels around the watch's face.

The 'bumper' type of automatic watch was the first commercial success. The design was used by several high end watch manufacturers in the 1930s and 1940s.

When Rolex improved on the 'bumper' design in 1930, the Rolex Oyster Perpetual was born. The refinements included a full circle of motion for the weight and an improvement in the time the watch would run on one complete winding.

The automatic wider became standard for quality mechanical watches. There were still a few holdouts for manually wound watches however.

Early models:

An earlier form of self-winding mechanism for pocket watches was invented in Austria in the 1770's. It used the same idea as a modern pedometer, a small weight at the end of a shaft that moved about and wound the watch as the possessor walked.

Be warned that vintage automatic wrist watches can be very addictive  once you get one.  You may start looking around to see what else is available in antique watches, such as pocket watches.

Capacitor watches:

There are some quartz watches that claim to to automatic  using a capacitor instead of a battery, but even those will have to be replaced eventually.

The automatic mechanism takes up a lot of room in the watch case. Manually wound watches can be made much thinner. But automatic is the way to go

Here's a cool video of a Swiss Automatic watch:

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