Hi all, hoping for some advice... I woke up this morning to find my Rolex Date 1500 had suddenly gained around 10 minutes overnight. It always ran slightly fast but by no more than 30 seconds per day. It has continued to gain around a minute per hour today. I was at a pub quiz last night which is played on tablets/smartphones and I spent a good deal of time with my hand hovering over the tablet (I'm a competitive sort!). Does this sound as if the watch has possibly become magnetised through close proximity to the tablet? I would have thought its timekeeping would deteriorate more gradually if it just needed a service? If it is indeed magnetised, what would be the best way to remedy it? Sorry for all the questions! Any advice is much appreciated. Gratuitous photo of the watch in question....
Doubtful, I shudder to think how many hours my good lady spends on her iPad crushing candies or whatever and never a problem.
If the iPad had a magnetic cover then it is very possible. Do you know when the watch was last serviced?
It was supposedly last serviced in 2013, according to the chap who sold it to me, but it came from eBay so can't be 100% sure. Sounds like it may be time to get it serviced myself. Thanks for the advice guys.
Haha no, it was just a plain vanilla iPad, so going by what Stewart has said, it sounds like magnetism is unlikely.
An easy way to tell is to demagnetize it and see if the rate changes... A sudden change in rate like this is usually magnetism, but also if the watch received a shock it's possible that the balance spring was caught up on the stud. Both will shorten the effective length of the balance spring, and cause a fast rate. Cheers, Al
A spinning hard disk drive will give off a magnetic field (as will the motor that turns it). Since the tablet has none, and in the absence of a magnet for a cover, I very much doubt you have a magnetism problem. It's been 3 years...probably due anyway. I think Archer is very likely correct. But if you don't like it anymore...it can make a home with me. ;-) PRETTY ROLEX! This is what they should look like!
I used to work with robots which had magnetic drives and used to get my watch buggered and my credit cards ruined about twice a year. What you have sounds like magnetism all right. My watchmaker used to just laugh and go to his little machine with my watch, all was well in a few minutes..... it was the razzing afterward that was hardest to take.
Quick update on this. I bought a cheap watch demagnetiser from eBay to see if it would sort things - not the most elegant of machines... It seemed to do something as the watch stopped when I zapped it with it, but it hasn't fixed the problem - it's still 10 mins a day fast so it's off for servicing tomorrow. Going to be a bit more expensive than I'd hoped!