Recently bought an automatic watch and debated the necessity of a winder; bottom line is that it's not a necessity, but a convenience (with modern watches) to mitigate frequent need of resetting time/date. The Versa winder has selectable cw/ccw/auto and 4 tpd settings varying from about 500tpd up to 2400tpd (not exact because I don't have the paperwork with me). After unpacking it took less than 5 minutes to set-up and put in operation. Very simple instructions provided which was all that are required. Operational noise is inaudible above ambient household environmental noise. Also provided extenders to accomodate watches sized for larger wrists - not necessary in my case (6'2" - 250). The only additional feature I would have desired would be the abilty to turn off one turntable, but will probably cure that by buying an addtional watch. Will see how well reliablility pans out, but for now I am completely satisfied.