Good evening OF!
I recently came into my first Omega a few weeks ago. Picked up a ref 368.1041 Seamaster 200m from a fellow enthusiast around town. I've been wearing it religious ever since! Using the toolwatch app on my phone, I've been doing a very informal monitoring of the accuracy, testing it twice a day.

My first interesting find is that while very close to perfect, it never kept a consistent rate. For example, some measurements would be a bit slow, some would be a bit fast. It did this for a few days until it rested at around +1.5-2 for about a week. Then a few days ago it started running fast. Really fast. The first day is was +20, then +25, then +40. I just measured it again now with 2 separate apps and one shows +47.2 and the other shows +54.6.

From my googling, this seems to be a symptom of magnetization. I downloaded the Lepsi app that utilizes your phones compassions to test your watch and, go figure, it says that it's magnetized. Here are my questions:

- From what I've read, this is very rare? To the point that many writers claim that most regular watch collectors and enthusiasts will never experience it. Did I just have a bout of very bad luck?

- Are these magnetization test apps accurate?

- I see watch demagnetizers on amazon for $10-15usd, are these trustworthy? Do I need to have it serviced?

- What could have caused this? I've been wearing a Seiko 5 for 7+ years and never had this issue. I do carry a money clip wallet that has a magnet, but like I said, I've been wearing cheap autos for years and never had this problem.

Thanks for the help everyone!

 

Hi - Possibly, from your description.
Nowadays, it is not uncommon for watches to be near bits of magnet and getting magnetised.
I have no experience with the magnetisation test app but it would've been indicative somewhat.
Instead of doing the de-magnetisation yourself (with tool that you have no idea whether it works or may even contributes to the problem), you might be better off going to an AD, reliable watchmaker or boutique to have them do it. I know the OB will do it for free.

 

Phones can’t magnetize watches can they? Especially watches with lower beat rates of 18,000vph and 19,800vph. I know computers and laptops can, and since today’s smartphones are mini-computers by themselves...

Then again I believe your 368.1041 should have a 28,800vph movement inside it so if it has been magnetized, it must have been something else.

 

It's worth getting it properly checked for magnetisation I think. Don't know how reliable the lepsi/phone app is, but it will probably depend on your particular phone quite a lot. Anyway, the professionals on here can advise you as to how likely it is for that particular case/movement combination.

A good watchmaker will have a professional de-magnetiser, and will likely do it for free or make only a moderate charge, and possibly even chuck it on a timing machine for you (although may then expect your business if there are deeper issues !)

Yes, you can get cheap de-magnetisers from the likes of ebay - they are just a crude AC electromagnet inside. They need to be used correctly otherwise you can make the situation worse. (They also also melt if you leave them on too long...) Some folk reckon they get them to work fine. I found them a bit hit and miss - more miss in my case, so chucked mine away. If you're going to try one, ideally you need a timing machine to check what it's done straight away, as you can't guarantee it will have fixed any problem first time, or may even have made it worse.

I managed to pick up an Elma anti-mag second hand for not much money (it's probably the bottom end of the professional stuff), but that makes it easy and fairly reliable.

The culprit affecting my older magnet-sensitive watches was probably a laptop. The drive (lots of magnetics from the motor mainly) was under the front left of the laptop....just under my wrist when using it. Replaced it with a solid state drive anyway. Some laptops have the speakers under the front edge too I think.

 

Don't know about the app you used but a compass works well.

have fun
kfw

 

iPhones and iPads have powerful magnets in them to hold covers on and hold those covers closed. Don’t set your watch on them!

Tom

 

True test

See if a paperclip attaches

 

Magnetism in watches is very common. As noted there are strong but small magnets used in all kinds of products these days, and generally there are more magnetic fields around us than ever before. A compass really isn't a good way of determining if something is magnetized, since a compass will react to any ferrous material (the compass has a magnet in it). I typically use timing machine results before and after demagnetizing, but sometimes magnetism is more obvious...



If someone is telling you it's "rare" then take that with a large grain of salt. The good news is that magnetism is about the easiest watch problem to solve, so all you need is a demagnetizer, and they can be had fairly cheaply. I would suggest demagnetizing it and checking the rate, and you will know pretty quickly if that's your problem. If it is, then you need to track down where it became magnetized.

Cheers, Al

 

Do you have a watch that you think is not magnetized? Try it on the app and see what it says. Just curious.

 

This is a really pretty watch.

 

Thanks for all the replies everyone! I'm going to try the Lepsi phone test with an old watch and also check this watch with a compass as some of you recommended. Mainly just for fun at this point as I've already purchased a $10 demagnetizer that should be here in a few days. I have an old and very broken Seiko 5 that's not worth the cost to service it, so maybe I'll try to magnetize that and practice demagnetizing it . Either way, some locals recommended a watch repair shop and I will most likely suck it up and get it serviced there for good measure. I'll let you know how it goes!

 

Bad idea. The "sensor" is an inch away from a strong magnet.

Tom

 

Congratulations, you just magnetised your watch.

Tom

 

Is it running noticeably off? I would question the accuracy of all watch apps. I had an old magnetized Venus 178 that was gaining around 10 min a day, not several seconds.

 

This concept is so alien to me. I've worn a <$100 seiko for something like 8 years and I've never had an issue. Does every person with an automatic watch not own cell phones, laptops, refrigerator magnets, etc? If having your phone close to your watch magnetizes it, which inevitably will happen if you have the phone in your pocket, does everyone just constantly demagnetize their watches?

 

It is noticeably off. Compared to a timing app and the atomic clock from 2 separate references. It's +1 min 55sec today. It seems to be getting faster and faster every day.

 

I bought a cheapy demagnetizer on eBay and it worked. Like mentioned I wouldn’t stick the watch up to the phone after but see if it starts to run better. If not I’d take it in.

 

I got a $10 one on amazon that should arrive today. I'll post results tonight!

 

The $10 amazon demagnetizer showed up today, and it seems to have worked well. I took an old seiko 5 and sat it on a magnet for a few hours and tested it with the phone app and compass, showing significant magnetization. Using the demagnetizer, I placed it over the tool with the power on for 10 seconds on and slowly pulled away, as I saw demonstrated on a YouTube video. The watch was then negative for the compass and phone app tests. So I did it with the Seamaster and had the same results. I just synchronized it to the atomic clock and also the ToolWatch measurement app. I will track it for a bit and report back with my results!

 

As I understand it... I've not googled very long, this Lepsi app uses your phone's built in compass and detects it shifting when a magnetic objects comes near it.

As for the phone magnetizing your watch... it may have magnetic parts, but probably nothing that can easily effect your watch and especially near the phone's compass... otherwise you compass would not work at all. For the purposes of using the Lepsi app to check it's probably fine.

Sharing my own experience, I just tried the Lepsi app and found four of my watches were magnetized. After demagnetizing the Lepsi app stopped consistently marking those watches as magnetized.