Yes, it seems they perform best on a full wind and kept at decent power reserve.. I reckon you're right about the auto winding, its like the rotor isn't quite heavy enough to wind it up enough without a manual wind every now and then. I find with mine that it loses a bit of time when it starts to power down... apart from that its a demon of a watch with decent build quality and very good functionality - the moon phase actually works.
I still struggle with opening the butterfly clasp bracelet each time though, i feel like I'm gonna break something each time i lever it to get it open. Maybe there is a method to doing it correctly ?