Hi! Looking for some watchmaking opinions since I'm afraid I messed it up. I just received a watch with a T17 movement. It was running fine until I decided to demagnetize it. I have one of these cheap demagnetizers and whenever I buy a vintage watch I do a pass or two just to make sure that the watch is not magnetized. It was fully wound before I did the pass. Immediately the watch stopped working. If I shake it very gently it starts running again very fast for like a full minute rotation and then the seconds hand stops again at around the same position as before. Shaking gently will repeat the process. I'll take it to a watchmaker when I get a chance to find what's wrong but until then it's gonna bug me. Do you think this somehow broke something irreversibly in the movement? Thank you for your comments
Demagnetizers are very effective at de-magnetizing watches, but they are equally effective at magnetizing them. After presenting the watch to the de-magnetizer, continue to held the ON button down and slowly withdraw the watch straight away for the demagnetizer! Some folks recommend that when the watch is 18 inches to 2 feet away from the de-magnetizer, that you “blip” the ON button off, then on, then off again. Try it and see what happens.
Thank you! After a few multiple passes trying your suggested way to de-magnetize the watch finally did the trick. Now it's running normally again. I never had a watch stopping before when using the de-magnetizer so I kinda freaked out that I broke something. Thanks again