Magnetized hairspring

[Route 66]

I was wondering how many of you have experienced this problem.

Is this something that we need to be constantly on guard for?

How easy is it for a hairspring to become magnetized?

What are the symptoms of this problem?




These questions occurred to me the other day when I was in my garage and decided to use an electric drill. I didn't know if I needed to remove my watch for fear that the hairspring might become magnetized.

Thanks for all replies.

[Kanger]

Time keeping will be off. This can happen with the pre- parachrom hair spring, BUT from what I have heard, the fix is very easy as any experienced watchmaker can take care of it.

[roger0770]

electric drill will probably not magnetize the watch. i wouldn't worry too much about it.

[padi56]

Well in my experience working in the steel industry for over 30 years working with and around very powerful electro magnets.Myself have never had a problem with Rolex or any other mechanical watch I was wearing.And now working with quite high power radio that can put out quite a strong magnetic field again never had a problem.When a watch is fully magnetised the symptoms are that they will run very very erratic generally speed by minutes rather than a few seconds or come to a complete stop and refuse to start. Now Rolex watches are made mainly from S.steel or precious metals and in conjunction with nickel, brass or beryllium, bronze or Glucydur balance wheels so they are very anti-magnetic to begin with, not 100% sure if the screws used are ferrous metal.Sure the Nivourax hairsprings are very very very slightly magnetic but you would have to come in contact with a very strong magnetic field to magnetise them.IMHO magnetised today is often used as a cop out for nothing more than just simple regulation, but if any watch today show any symptoms of being magnetised its a very simple process to de-magnetise.

[CDNWatchNut]

In my experience it takes a fairly direct exposure to a strong magnetic field. A few years ago, my son got some play magnets(the strong ones aka "rattlesnake eggs"). I was having a nap and I think he figured he'd check my watch(a Seamaster Pro) to see if a magnet would stick....hahahaha.
Anyhow, the watch started running fast(as in minutes a day) which is typical of a magnetized hairspring.
Took it to a watchmaker and he passed it through a degausser twice. Problem completely solved in less than a minute. It went back to timing just as it was before.

[flathead59]

The only time I've had an issue was when I set my watch on the counter in a motel. I wasn't paying attention, and failed to notice that the refrigerator was immediately under the counter. My watch went from +1 to +15 overnight. Took it to a jeweler in town when I got home, he demagnetized it, and it went right back to +1. None of the power tools or com gear I've worked with caused any problems, but that fridge did.

Mark

[rad87gn]

I've handled 18" Sub woofers and lots of highly magnetic objects with my Rolex on and never a problem.