Rolexes becoming magnetised.

Rolexes becoming magnetised.

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13m

Original Poster:

26,271 posts

221 months

Wednesday 10th February 2016
quotequote all

In my watch box I have two Rolex Sports (a GMTII and a Sea Dweller) that seem to be susceptible to becoming magnetised. Not hugely so, but they will start to gain 20 seconds a day or so.

I have a demagnetiser which seems to sort them out, but they are seemingly prone to it.

None of my other watches are affected.

Any ideas chaps?


bobbybee

872 posts

153 months

Wednesday 10th February 2016
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Where is the box kept?
Near or on a speaker, subwoofer or some such?
I've not heard of Rolex being particularly susceptible to magnetic fields, I've had 5, currently down to 2 all kept on a watch winder, therefore about 5cm from an electric motor, with no issues.

Yell_M3

389 posts

199 months

Wednesday 10th February 2016
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Never heard of this with a rolex. A Bell & Ross I had was a nightmare tho'!

13m

Original Poster:

26,271 posts

221 months

Wednesday 10th February 2016
quotequote all
bobbybee said:
Where is the box kept?
Near or on a speaker, subwoofer or some such?
I've not heard of Rolex being particularly susceptible to magnetic fields, I've had 5, currently down to 2 all kept on a watch winder, therefore about 5cm from an electric motor, with no issues.
They are kept in a safe. No magnets nearby that I am aware of.

There's a steel Sub in the same box that is never magnetised.

bobbybee

872 posts

153 months

Wednesday 10th February 2016
quotequote all
I don't think they are magnetized then, could be how you are storing them.
face up / down or on the side crown up / down, the resting position can have quite an effect.
Depending on age they may be showing signs that they need a service

Does the safe have an electronic lock?
Are the 2 watches effected kept nearer the lock than the Sub?

13m

Original Poster:

26,271 posts

221 months

Wednesday 10th February 2016
quotequote all
bobbybee said:
I don't think they are magnetized then, could be how you are storing them.
face up / down or on the side crown up / down, the resting position can have quite an effect.
Depending on age they may be showing signs that they need a service

Does the safe have an electronic lock?
Are the 2 watches effected kept nearer the lock than the Sub?
Pretty sure they are becoming magnetised. When they run fast I check them with a compass and they make the needle move. Then I demagnetise them with my demagnetiser, they don't move the compass needle anymore and they return to normal accuracy (or lack thereof, these being Rolexes).

The watches get shuffled around the box so it's not positioning in there.

The other watches are a Cartier, a Tag Heuer and a Sub. Ironically, the Dweller seems most inclined to become magnetised and that is the one with the thickest case.


Yell_M3

389 posts

199 months

Wednesday 10th February 2016
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Just an aside, what's your demagnetizer? Can you point me to a web site?

13m

Original Poster:

26,271 posts

221 months

Wednesday 10th February 2016
quotequote all
Yell_M3 said:
Just an aside, what's your demagnetizer? Can you point me to a web site?
I have one very similar to this.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/watch-demagnetiser-demag...

guindilias

5,245 posts

119 months

Friday 12th February 2016
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My Air King Date loses about a minute a day.... maybe I should buy a big magnet...tongue out

[quote=13m]
In my watch box I have two Rolex Sports (a GMTII and a Sea Dweller) that seem to be susceptible to becoming magnetised. Not hugely so, but they will start to gain 20 seconds a day or so.

I have a demagnetiser which seems to sort them out, but they are seemingly prone to it.

None of my other watches are affected.

Any ideas chaps?

[/quote

13m

Original Poster:

26,271 posts

221 months

Saturday 13th February 2016
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Hmmm, so yesterday morning running fine. This morning fast and magnetised. As far as I am aware the watch has been near no strong magnets. It's weird.

scooby1994

138 posts

127 months

Saturday 13th February 2016
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when my nomos kept getting magnetized it was because i was putting it near my mobile phone and lap top at night time,its been fine since it was serviced and nomos warned me that was why it was running fast

Yell_M3

389 posts

199 months

Wednesday 24th February 2016
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13m said:
Thanks. I'll be getting one!

13m

Original Poster:

26,271 posts

221 months

Wednesday 24th February 2016
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Bit of an update on this.

I have meticulously checked all my watches in the box and found that actually some of the others were SLIGHTLY magnetised.

I checked the box and found that the spring catch was very magnetised. It will not demagnetise with my demagnetiser. No idea how it became magnetised. I have started storing the watches without the box.

Confident that I had found the source of the problem, I was surprised when my SD began racing again. Yep, magnetised again.

I am starting to wonder whether my laptop has shielding issues. I think I need to start looking more closely at it.

13m

Original Poster:

26,271 posts

221 months

Wednesday 24th February 2016
quotequote all

Okay, I've been at my Lenovo G50 laptop and bottom left where my wrist rests there is a definite magnetic field that makes the compass align sharply. We're not talking hi fi speaker strength I don't think, but would this be enough to magnetise a watch? The head of it is probably 3 inches from the magnetic area of the laptop.




Variomatic

2,392 posts

160 months

Friday 26th February 2016
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It shouldn't be.

We're surrounded by magnetic fields of that sort of strength most of our lives nowadays and it's rare for them to cause problems. One thing that might be worth checking if your safe is iron or steel shelled - has it managed to become magnetised? Can't imagine how it would but if there's no other source....

Disastrous

10,072 posts

216 months

Friday 26th February 2016
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Is this possibly you?


13m

Original Poster:

26,271 posts

221 months

Friday 26th February 2016
quotequote all
Variomatic said:
It shouldn't be.

We're surrounded by magnetic fields of that sort of strength most of our lives nowadays and it's rare for them to cause problems. One thing that might be worth checking if your safe is iron or steel shelled - has it managed to become magnetised? Can't imagine how it would but if there's no other source....
I've just tested hat and it IS exhibiting a slight magnetic field. However I demagnetised all the watches a few days ago and the only two that were magnetised a moment ago were the ones I've been wearing this week.

To rule out the safe, though, I will store the watches elsewhere for a few weeks.


mikeveal

4,558 posts

249 months

Monday 29th February 2016
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Assuming your safe is iron, or a similar material with a high permeability, there can be no magnetic field from outside your safe can penetrate to the inside. The safe can not become magnetised to introduce a magnetic field insider the safe.
It's a Faraday cage for magnetism, easier to explain with electricity...

Imagine a safe made of copper, because the copper is an excellent conductor, the inside top wall of the safe will always be at the same potential as the inside bottom wall. Climb inside, close the door and probe around with a volt meter. No matter where you place the leads on the walls the voltmeter will always read zero. Once you've established that, it's easy to see that there is no electric field within the copper safe. Zero volts per meter. Doesn't matter what's happening outside, the copper safe could be being hit repeatedly with lightening bolts inside you see no effect. For a visual aid, google "Spark suit" to see men dressed in tinfoil hats playing with lightening.

The same principal works with magnetism. The walls conduct the magnetism preventing any field outside from penetrating to inside. Even if the safe itself becomes magnetised , there's zero field inside.

There is of course nothing to stop a magnet inside the safe from generating a field inside.

13m

Original Poster:

26,271 posts

221 months

Monday 29th February 2016
quotequote all
mikeveal said:
Assuming your safe is iron, or a similar material with a high permeability, there can be no magnetic field from outside your safe can penetrate to the inside. The safe can not become magnetised to introduce a magnetic field insider the safe.
It's a Faraday cage for magnetism, easier to explain with electricity...

Imagine a safe made of copper, because the copper is an excellent conductor, the inside top wall of the safe will always be at the same potential as the inside bottom wall. Climb inside, close the door and probe around with a volt meter. No matter where you place the leads on the walls the voltmeter will always read zero. Once you've established that, it's easy to see that there is no electric field within the copper safe. Zero volts per meter. Doesn't matter what's happening outside, the copper safe could be being hit repeatedly with lightening bolts inside you see no effect. For a visual aid, google "Spark suit" to see men dressed in tinfoil hats playing with lightening.

The same principal works with magnetism. The walls conduct the magnetism preventing any field outside from penetrating to inside. Even if the safe itself becomes magnetised , there's zero field inside.

There is of course nothing to stop a magnet inside the safe from generating a field inside.
So you're saying that the safe isn't causing the magnetism?

I have demagged my watches and am storing them temporarily in a wooden box, away from anything remotely magnetic. I hope that this will allow me to discount the storage location from my enquiries.

Variomatic

2,392 posts

160 months

Monday 29th February 2016
quotequote all
mikeveal said:
Assuming your safe is iron, or a similar material with a high permeability, there can be no magnetic field from outside your safe can penetrate to the inside. The safe can not become magnetised to introduce a magnetic field insider the safe.
It's a Faraday cage for magnetism, easier to explain with electricity...
All true if the safe is a simple iron (or similar) box construction. But they're often not.

The lining may or may not be magnetically continuous across all 6 internal faces (in fact, the door lining often won't be) and things like shelves introduce further isolated parts. So, while the outer shell will form a cage, the internal bits may not.

Like I said in the last post, it's an outside chance but worth checking if there's no other explanation.