What's the deal with watches if you put them in hotel or home safes, magnetising or otherwise?
Does this problem exist, or can you put any of them in safes and not have to worry about any problems to the movements, autos especially?

 

Never heard this one before. A safe is just a metal box, not a magnet, so I can’t imagine how it could make any difference at all. I’ve never noticed issues anyway.

 

The Seamaster aqua terra 150m is the watch to go then... 15.000 gauss

No seriously, I don’t think this would be a problem for the watches.

 

The only problem I can think of is that it will make it difficult to read the dial.

 

Maybe there are bigger problems if the watches are not in the safe

 

I think the bigger problem may be this:

Anyone can open a cheap safe with a sock and a magnet.

Or even worse:

 

Depending on the seal, the safe can actually act as a Faraday cage and shield your stuff from electrostatic and electromagnetic forces. So it definitely won't hurt your watches.

 

I only ask this because I've seen people moaning about it on threads before, and swear that it's caused problems when using hotel safes. I don't know, there are magnets involved in some safe locks. But judging by the consensus on here, I can take from it that there isn't a problem with anyone on here using safes. I assume it's from some experience?

 

Other than magnetising your watches what other things are you worried might happen if you put them in a safe?

 

I have put watches in a hotel safe before and did not have any issue. (Speedy / Exp II).

However, when I travel now I wear a primary watch and if I bring another I put it in a cheap eyeglass case. I believe valuables are best left ‘hidden in plain site’...

YMMV

 

I would be about 100 times more concerned with condensation inside the safe than magnetism. Magnetism is an easy fix .

 

... there's some advice - don't go back to your room from the hotel bar drunk and get the fridge and safe mixed up.

 

Don't many people put silica gel in their safe to act as a dehumidifier to combat this?

 

That's what I do!

 

Same here! Once I collected electrostatic headphones, which will die if left in the slightest of humid conditions. I had a mountain of silica packs to keep them nice and dry. So when I bought anything that comes with nice silica gel I kept it and just chucked it in the pile of gels.

Also right now since I don't own many watches I do what @gostang9 does- conceal in plain sight....it's especially nice collecting vintage, onlookers have no clue how much they are, they think it's 100 bucks max!

 

The bigger problem with hotel safes is that they're usually rubbish and you have no idea who has the master code to get into them. I've heard of hotel safes being described as goodie boxes for thieves.

 

I have a safe at home, and store a number of watches in it. No problems with magnetism.

 

Keep your vintage watch in your underpants. The older you and the pants get, the less chance there is of any outside interference.

 

Excactly! I have found stuff in there I haven’t used in years

 

Never had any issue, nor predicting one