Well, a wind-up watch, as denoted by the name requires winding by the wearer while a battery powered watch simply uses a small watch battery that can be purchased at any watch dealer, major department stores, on the Internet or at some jewelry stores.

How do wind up watches work?

On self-winding (automatic) watches, a rotor is attached to the watches movement so that when you move your wrist, the rotor spins and winds the watch back up again by tightening the mainspring. A hand-wound watch has no rotor and therefore needs to be wound by hand in order for it to work.

Are wind up watches more expensive?

Mechanical watches can be thousands of dollars more expensive than quartz — but you should still buy one. ... Choose the mechanical watch every time.