This is to differentiate watches you have to wind. It’s automatic winding rather than manual winding. It’s lingo that has stuck around since watches became a common item. All watches were manual winding at first. Then the automatic winding watches came out. Then the quartz battery. We still have all these types of watches but to differentiate they’re called quartz, automatic, manual.

yeah so thats just what they’re called. its the parlance for a watch that winds itself. you used to have to wind them every day of course, then these came along and “automatic winding watch”, shortened to “automatic” has always been the term industry and marketing have used. sometimes they are called self-winding, but Ive heard “automatic” nearly every time. there’s also quartz movement, which uses a battery

Everybody says automatic watch. Like literally everyone from common consumers straight down the line to horologists.