I think I've magnetised my watch ......

[Seight_Returns]

I have a Steinhart with an ETA 2824-2 movement that I've had for about a month.

I've had some fun regulating it - it was running at +6s/d out of the box, after a couple of tweaks I'd got it to a consistent +1.5s/d over a period of 2 weeks. At least it was until yesterday when I checked it and found it had gained 30s over the previous 8 hours. During that time I had taken the watch off and left it resting on top of my mobile phone which has a case with a magnetic clasp - I suspect that wasn't too clever.

Does this sound like it's been magnetised ? I have a couple of Omegas too and I read on the Omega forums that Omega's that use derivations of this movement that it's susceptible to this problem.

If so, what can I do about it ? I see de-magnetisers on Ebay for a few pounds - will one of these cure my watch or have I killed it ?

[Mabbs9]

It'd be surprising. Often the plate in the phone cover is just the metal with the magnet on the bracket in your car. Good luck.

[bonerp]

try it. I suspected my Tisell was magnetised as it suddenly stopped keeping accurate time. Problem solved for £9 off amazon.

[L555BAT]

I've also magnetised my watch. Same movement as yours, different watch.

Suddenly gone from running +3s/day to +1s/day. So it's better but I was concerned about what I'd done to it (e.g. impact damage) that might need looking into.

Get a compass, wave your watch around above it and see if it moves the needle. Like this, this is what mine does (but not by so much as that) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmYsCIEj4-w

I've ordered a blue mains powered demagnetiser, seems to be what people are recommending.

No idea how I magnetised it in the first place, I've been through forum threads and don't think I'm guilty of any of the common things.

[rog007]

“Should’ve gone to Rolex” (and bought a Milgauss)!



Other anti magnetic watches are available

[Seight_Returns]

Some progress albeit not exactly an unqualified success yet.

I bought the £9 blue demagnetiser from Amazon and demagnetised the watch a few times over the weekend. The first time I did so it made an ominous buzzing sound which it didn't do subsequently.

Before I demagged it, it was running +90s/d and getting faster by the hour. It slowed down visibly whilst being demagnetised to the point that the second hand almost stopped and it ran ~1 min/d slow for a few hours after each zapping before speeding up and running fast again.

I gave it a full wind and let it run down completely then rewound it and I'm winding it twice a day to see if it's stabilised. I've been clocking it 3 times a day over the last 2 days and it's now running a consistent +36 s/d which hopefully is a good basis for re-regulating it. If no joy I'll return it.

No idea what happened to it or if my phone/magnetic clasp on phone case was the culprit.

The "Just Get A Rolex" comment is well made. It's a nicely made watch for £400 (albeit with a suspect ETA movement!) but I suspect magnetic shielding wasn't high on the list of Gunter Steinhart's list of design priorities. To an extend you do get what you pay for !

[JapanRed]

Great thread and one that interests me quite a bit. Despite owning a few Omegas I don’t really know how accurate they are (I rarely need to change the time on the quartz Seamaster - once a year if that).

How do you regulate a watch? And how do you know that it’s runninv fast or slow, especially by such small margins as seconds?

Cheers.

[So]

Seight_Returns said:

I have a Steinhart with an ETA 2824-2 movement that I've had for about a month.

I've had some fun regulating it - it was running at +6s/d out of the box, after a couple of tweaks I'd got it to a consistent +1.5s/d over a period of 2 weeks. At least it was until yesterday when I checked it and found it had gained 30s over the previous 8 hours. During that time I had taken the watch off and left it resting on top of my mobile phone which has a case with a magnetic clasp - I suspect that wasn't too clever.

Does this sound like it's been magnetised ? I have a couple of Omegas too and I read on the Omega forums that Omega's that use derivations of this movement that it's susceptible to this problem.

If so, what can I do about it ? I see de-magnetisers on Ebay for a few pounds - will one of these cure my watch or have I killed it ?

It could well be magnetized.

All my mechanical watches get magnetized over a few weeks of use. I am not sure where they get it from, I suspect a number of sources and the effects are cumulative.

I have a theory that a high proportion of mechanical watches owned by others are also magnetized, but either the watches perform OK or people don't notice or care.

Buy something like this off Ebay:

And a small plastic compass. You can check whether the watch is magnetized with the compass and demag it in seconds with the de-mag tool. But make sure you buy a mains one, the battery ones appear less effective. You may also find you need to buy a 2-pin -UK mains adapter, because they all seem to have two pins.

[Seight_Returns]

That's the demagnetizer I bought from Amazon for £9 complete with 2 pin mains plug - demagnetization attempts have therefore out of necessity been carried out in my bathroom using the 2 pin electric shaver socket !

I use a phone app called WatchCheck to monitor the accuract of my mechanical watches - there are numerous other similar apps but this one allows multiple watches to be monitored concurrently using the free version.

You need a Timegrapher do check the accuracy and regulate a watch in real time but I'm not that serious - I just adjust the regulator screw and monitor the accuracy over a couple of days and then re-adjust - repeating the process until I get a result I'm happy with.

[Lorne]

JapanRed said:

...How do you regulate a watch? And how do you know that it’s running fast or slow, especially by such small margins as seconds?

Cheers.

Regulation by one of two methods:

a) moving the pointer on the back of the movement near the thing that swings back and forth toward + or - ; see below pic. You need to take the back off the watch to get access to it and it's jolly small, so you also need a steady hand and good glasses.

or b) ask a jeweller/watch-shop to do it.

To find out how fast or slow your watch is running also has two methods:

a) Set it at exactly 6pm and zero seconds when you hear the appropriate Radio 4 time pips at 6 pm whilst driving home. The next day, when you hear the pips again, you can see how many seconds off 6 pm and zero seconds your watch says. -- Appropriate warnings about not doing it whilst your car is actually moving, but since I commute through London traffic this isn't normally an issue.

or b) ........ (they have a beat counting machine that'll tell you in 5 minutes)

Edited by Lorne on Thursday 7th February 15:52

[So]

Seight_Returns said:

That's the demagnetizer I bought from Amazon for £9 complete with 2 pin mains plug - demagnetization attempts have therefore out of necessity been carried out in my bathroom using the 2 pin electric shaver socket !

I use a phone app called WatchCheck to monitor the accuract of my mechanical watches - there are numerous other similar apps but this one allows multiple watches to be monitored concurrently using the free version.

You need a Timegrapher do check the accuracy and regulate a watch in real time but I'm not that serious - I just adjust the regulator screw and monitor the accuracy over a couple of days and then re-adjust - repeating the process until I get a result I'm happy with.

Watch accuracy apps are the devil in app form. It's easy to become preoccupied with accuracy and it doesn't matter how many positions one checks, a watch will still run differently on the wrist.

[Seight_Returns]

Things are getting slowly better.

I was happy that the watch was running a constant +36s/d (with the accepted caveat that the error will be different running on my wrist than on the winder, but hopefully still a consistent error). I gave the regulating screw a coarse tweak late last night and this morning it's slowed down to +10s/d. Will monitor over next 48h and if it stays constant at this error I'll give it a fine tweak to hopefully bring it to an acceptable accuracy.

I wouldn't dare to open up one of my £3k watches and fiddle with it - but with a £400 watch it's an interesting learning experience.

[So]

Seight_Returns said:

Things are getting slowly better.

I was happy that the watch was running a constant +36s/d (with the accepted caveat that the error will be different running on my wrist than on the winder, but hopefully still a consistent error). I gave the regulating screw a coarse tweak late last night and this morning it's slowed down to +10s/d. Will monitor over next 48h and if it stays constant at this error I'll give it a fine tweak to hopefully bring it to an acceptable accuracy.

I wouldn't dare to open up one of my £3k watches and fiddle with it - but with a £400 watch it's an interesting learning experience.

Have you tested it to see if it is magnetized?

[Seight_Returns]

No. But I demagged it several times on the assumption that it was.

[Jayho]

I've heard steinhart have really great customer service. If you bought new from them, maybe email them and see if they'll fix / take a look for free?

[So]

Seight_Returns said:

No. But I demagged it several times on the assumption that it was.

Worth checking.

A cheap plastic compass costs pennies and although it isn't a definitive test it is a good guide.

I have one watch (my most expensive ironically) that magnetizes easily and is very hard to de-magnetize. It takes a dozen or so passes over the demag tool and I have even needed to deliberately magnetize it before I can remove minor magnetism.

[Seight_Returns]

I bought in new from Gnomon watches in Singapore - who I'm also told have good CS.

If demagging and deregulation doesn't sort it out it'll be going back there.

[Badda]

L555BAT said:

I've also magnetised my watch. Same movement as yours, different watch.

Suddenly gone from running +3s/day to +1s/day. So it's better but I was concerned about what I'd done to it (e.g. impact damage) that might need looking into.

Get a compass, wave your watch around above it and see if it moves the needle. Like this, this is what mine does (but not by so much as that) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmYsCIEj4-w

I've ordered a blue mains powered demagnetiser, seems to be what people are recommending.

No idea how I magnetised it in the first place, I've been through forum threads and don't think I'm guilty of any of the common things.

Your watch suddenly went from 3 seconds to 1 second a day and you noticed??!! Weird!

[So]

Badda said:

L555BAT said:

I've also magnetised my watch. Same movement as yours, different watch.

Suddenly gone from running +3s/day to +1s/day. So it's better but I was concerned about what I'd done to it (e.g. impact damage) that might need looking into.

Get a compass, wave your watch around above it and see if it moves the needle. Like this, this is what mine does (but not by so much as that) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmYsCIEj4-w

I've ordered a blue mains powered demagnetiser, seems to be what people are recommending.

No idea how I magnetised it in the first place, I've been through forum threads and don't think I'm guilty of any of the common things.

Your watch suddenly went from 3 seconds to 1 second a day and you noticed??!! Weird!

That sounds like the fever and madness people experience when they have a new timegrapher app.

[JapanRed]

Lorne said:

JapanRed said:

...How do you regulate a watch? And how do you know that it’s running fast or slow, especially by such small margins as seconds?

Cheers.

Regulation by one of two methods:

a) moving the pointer on the back of the movement near the thing that swings back and forth toward + or - ; see below pic. You need to take the back off the watch to get access to it and it's jolly small, so you also need a steady hand and good glasses.

or b) ask a jeweller/watch-shop to do it.

To find out how fast or slow your watch is running also has two methods:

a) Set it at exactly 6pm and zero seconds when you hear the appropriate Radio 4 time pips at 6 pm whilst driving home. The next day, when you hear the pips again, you can see how many seconds off 6 pm and zero seconds your watch says. -- Appropriate warnings about not doing it whilst your car is actually moving, but since I commute through London traffic this isn't normally an issue.

or b) ........ (they have a beat counting machine that'll tell you in 5 minutes)

Edited by Lorne on Thursday 7th February 15:52

Thanks Lorne, very informative