Several pocket watches that I own have become magnetized. I'm not sure why. Is this a common problem? I have taken them to my very dependable watchmaker in Seattle. He has demagnetized these watches. I think he has a machine that does this, but I've never seen the back of his shop.

Can anyone explain how this process works?

Robert, When you keep your watches near any electrically charged device, it will become magnetized. Such things as desk lamps with the straight Flourescent Light bars, Electric Fans, Small Power tools (Dremel, etc.), Jewelers lathe motors, COMPUTER TOWERS (MEGAZOOT Power supplies!).

If you wind about 1,000 turns of magnet wire around a 4-1/2 inch mandrel, squish it into an oval shape cast it with some epoxy or something, attach it to a switch, attach the coiled wire ends to each lead of an AC cord, you may be successful in either electrocuting yourself or making a demagnetizer that does a 60 Hz "Flux reversal" and thus cancels the magnetic charge in the watch.

OR Look on eBay or go to http://www.jewelerssupplies.com/product982.html and buy one . . .

My demagnatizer is something like David has but an older version with a button on the top and instructions on the bottom that I picked up off of ebay about 10-11 years ago. I have another that you sit the watch on and move it away that I need to rebuild but it appears to do the same process, form a magnetic flux field that counters the one effect in your watch.

David you are too funny....

BTW, how are you getting along....obviously, pretty good....at least your sense of humor....

Regards,
Jerry

I don't know how old mine is,but it still works great.

OSHA would never approve. Yes those electric leads are wide open,just waiting to be touched.

I appreciate the expert advice.

This site is amazing. I don't know where else I could have found out this information so quickly.

I have in the past had some of my watches get magnetized, probably due to my work around generators, welders, etc. I used to have one of those universal tape head demagnetizers, made for cassette players.It had a probe on it, and I could carefully touch the hairspring with the demag tool and take the magnetism out of it.It worked really well.I realize that's not the right way to do it, but it did the trick.

Theodore you are right about that. When I work on watches, the first thing I do is de-mag them because it is a real bother to have magnetized parts jumping around like thos little magnetic doggies people used to have when I was a kid, and worse jumping up outa the jewel screw hole at my screwdriver just when everything is ready to be put back together.

Dont forget to also demagnetize your tools as they can pass the problem onwards, not a bad idea to give them a wipe over at the same time, remove dirt/grease/dust etc

I imagine that railroad men working around diesel-electric locos must have had more trouble with magnetism than anyone else...good thing they came out with Invar, Elinvar, etc.!Does anyone know if today's alloy mainsprings can get magnetized?Thanks, Ted B.

NOw I understand how the watches get magnetized, and what to do about it but how did these watches work at all on streetcars, interurbans and those big, New York Central electric locomotives?

Most big Traction motors were "canned" with ferrous shielding to shorten the magnetic "loop" raising the potential "gauss" for maximum power efficiency. Also they were some distance (in between the wheels or "trucks") from the conductor, engineer, driver person.

Leaving the watch next to a conventional "house fan" of the same era on a hot summer evening would do much more "magnetization".

I have opened "non running" watches where the hairspring was so magnetized that it actually stuck itself to the cross arms of the balance wheeel, preventing the balance wheel from turning at all. One can only guess where that happened.

I went 10 years as an engineman on an electric railroad. Never had a problem. I would guess that I would have had to run along side the train with my watch next to the traction motors to achieve an effect.

Way back, when Paillard Non-Magnetic watches were being sold, I know they were both Swiss and American-made.What were their hairsprings made of?That would have been long before Elinvar and other alloys came out.I know Waltham had some non magnetic models also very early on....Ted Brown.