A watch winder fully winds the watch main spring of various brands of automatic watches, avoiding wear and tear caused by excessive winding caused by prior art winders. In contrast with prior art watch winders, which wind watch main springs a predetermined number of turns, the inventive watch winder precisely detects a fully winded condition of the watch main spring, and stops winding. Prior art watch winders lack that sensing feature, so they continue winding fully winded watches until the predetermined number of turns has been completed. Additionally, the inventive watch winder eliminates the need to guess the number of turns and direction of rotation for different watches. The inventive subject matter further includes methods, which employ deviations in rotation speed to determine watch main spring winding states, such as under-winded, mid-winded, and fully-winded.