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JUVO M3 watch winder review

Juvo M3 Black panel/red trim

Juvo M3 Black panel/red trim

A winder has to main functions. First of all, it has to keep your automatic watch wound, so that whenever you strap it on your wrist, the time and the date is already set and ready to go. Then, there another important aspect, it has to look good. You finally nailed that grail, it looks amazing on your wrist, why not complement it with an elegant winder.

There are plenty of choices out there, on the low-end, you have the boxy winders, with a dull design matched with a mechanism that is best to be avoided. I would not touch these… First of all, you risk magnetising your watch and even if they were properly built, these are not the accessories that will highlight your watch or your collection. On the high-end, there are absolutely mouth-watering examples, but those fine woods and exotic leather upholstered winders come with a price tag that needs to be proportional to the price of the watches they will display, otherwise they make little sense.

Between these extremes, there is a big void, it’s not easy to find a winder that will keep your watches running and would also be nice to look at. Here comes JUVO Luxury, a watch accessory microbrand founded by Bhanu Chopra. Yes, the WatchUSeek Bhanu, one of the nicest guys writing about watches. As an authentic nice guy, he sent me one of the debut models to test, a Juvo M3 triple winder. There are actually four versions of the Juvo M3: all black, carbon fibre, red panel/black trim, and the model I’m reviewing here that has black panels and red aluminium trims.

Juvo M3 Black panel/red trim

Juvo M3 Black panel/red trim

It arrived in a huge box, very well cushioned and protected, really heavy… As I took it out from the protective silk bag it was wrapped in and I placed it on my desk, I had to step back to admire it. It was absolutely beautiful!

Its weight (6.6 kg) probably comes from the glass that covers every wooden surface, giving the winder a high-end lustrous finish. It looks like a luxurious piece of furniture that can go next to a high-end audio system. I really like its red aluminium frame, it gives the winder a gutsier look and a vintage flavour, it also reminds me the red WatchPaper logo, but as I mentioned earlier, there are other less flashy colour combinations.

Juvo M3 Black panel/red trim

Juvo M3 Black panel/red trim

The three winders are protected by a thick glass door with a little handle at the top left corner. Opening this door will offer quite an eye-candy, a dance of mirroring reflections and transparencies. I tried capturing it in my pictures, but it is something you have to experience with your own eyes.

Juvo M3 Black panel/red trim

Juvo M3 Black panel/red trim

Juvo M3 Black panel/red trim

Juvo M3 Black panel/red trim

The black wooden surface is covered by a layer of glass and each winder is surrounded by a stainless steel ring.

Juvo M3 Black panel/red trim

The beauty of the Juvo M3 comes from the fact that the power input and the control knobs stay hidden at the back. Operating it is really simple, there are two knobs for each winder, one to start and to set the number of turns per day, while the other is to set the rotating direction. In case you are not sure which is the recommended mode for your watch, you can always contact Juvo (info@juvoluxury.com) and they will readily help you out.

Juvo M3 winder - Turns Per Day knob

Juvo M3 winder – Turns Per Day knob

Juvo M3 winder - Rotating direction knob

Juvo M3 winder – Rotating direction knob

The winder might look like a quality speaker, but you won’t get much sound out of it. The motors are barely hearable, whispering quietly as they gently rotate the watches. If you want to sleep with your collection next to your bed, you can do it, the sound of the Juvo M3 won’t bother you at all and a tiny LED will let admire them even in a completely dark room.

Juvo M3 winder

Juvo M3 winder

With all these glass surfaces, the winder can easily become a fingerprint magnet, and to resolve this, Juvo is delivered with a black velvet pouch that contains, besides the manual, a micro fibre cloth and a pair of white gloves.

I have to try hard to find something that I don’t like about the Juvo M3. I did not have to deal with this problem, I am just wondering, if dust would build up between the glass and the aluminium layer on the top of the winder, because of the narrow gap between the two, cleaning that part must be difficult. For the rest, I would not change a thing.

Juvo M3 winder

Juvo M3 winder

Trying out the Juvo M3 felt like my watch collecting game got to a whole new level. It was an absolute pleasure contemplating the quite rotation of the watches and how they would return to their original position once a rotation cycle would end.

It’s not hard to see that every aspect of this winder was thought out with the watch collector in mind. After all, there are not too many accessories out there designed by a seasoned watch expert like Bhanu. He also happens to have an engineering background and that probably helps too when it comes to ironing out every little detail.

Juvo M3 winder

As a microbrand, Juvo has mainly an online presence, with only a few select retailers carrying it, although from what I was told, they are open to looking into expanding their retail network. The M3 can be ordered directly from the Juvo website or from Amazon. The price is $799 US with free shipping in the U.S. and flat $49.99 for international shipping, which is fantastic considering the weight and the size of the parcel.

If you need more than three winding units, take a look at the JUVO M4, it comes in all black or black with red trims, that retails for $999 US.

Did I mention that Bhanu is a very nice guy? Until father’s day (Sunday, June 18, 2017) July 16, 2017, JUVO Luxury is offering our readers 25% off on all their winders, you just have to enter WATCHPAPER when you check out.

More about JUVO at https://juvoluxury.com/.

As a graphic designer, I'm fascinated by the crossroads between technology and aesthetics. Horology is one of these crafts, where art and engineering come together to produce mechanical wonders that grace the eye. WatchPaper was born from the desire to create an online tool where I can share my passion for watches.