This question keeps coming up and from what I can see is based solely on the fact that this is the way it works in SH3! However, SH3 is a game, not a reference guide.
For more empirical evidence, I would rather rely on the inspection report of the U-570, a type VIIc which was captured in august 1941:
http://www.uboatarchive.net/U-570ONIReport.htm
this is what it says about the UZO (p.59-60):
Quote:
A binocular support is installed at about the center of the chariot bridge. This support is shown in Photograph No. 5 (binoculars were not mounted when the photograph was taken). Binoculars mounted on the stand may be rapidly trained by turning a finned driving ring which is near the top of, and concentric with, the mounting. An azimuth circle with vernier is fitted on the mounting. The binoculars secured to the movable head can be elevated or depressed and adjusted for distance between the eyes. The mounting permits a clear view around the horizon. The binoculars are of pressure proof construction. These arrangements provide a bridge torpedo director. A small lever on the starboard side of the pedestal of the mounting was stated by the ship's gunner to be a torpedo firing lever for firing bow tubes from the bridge.
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as noted, they can be moved up and down, but no mention of a fancy gyrostabilizer mechanism, which I presume, would have been mentioned if it existed.