Can a Quartz watch get magnetized?

[PhilipJI]

I'm always careful with my mechanical watches, never leave one off my wrist near a phone or anything that might have magnets in them. Having recently purchased a 2005 Grand Seiko Quartz, I'm wondering if I have to be just as careful. I'm not sure if quartz movements are just as susceptible to magnets a mechanical movements.

[Stringer]

Yes, but not nearly as much.

As I understand it, there’s much less to be permanently affected by magnetism within a regular analogue quartz i.e. no hairspring, balance wheel etc.

However, a quartz works via drive from a tiny little magnetic stepper rotor, which is itself driven by a magnetic field (generated by the coil), so yes, magnetism can interfere with that, potentially stopping or slowing the hands, but in most cases the watch will go back to normal as soon as the magnetic field from the outside source is removed, and the watch will carry on as normal thereafter, with little or no ill-effects (aside from being a little slow due to that period of stopping, perhaps).

Mechanicals are different, because the integral time-keeping parts can themselves become magnetised, such that they retain a level of magnetism, even after the outside magnetic source is long removed, hence why demagnetising is required.

I think most standard GS HAQ models already have a half-decent level of anti-magnetic capability as well, around 60 gauss, which will be fine to offer protection against the majority of magnets encountered daily e.g. fridge magnet or phone/ipad cover.

I wouldn’t worry.

[PhilipJI]

Yes, but not nearly as much.

As I understand it, there’s much less to be permanently affected by magnetism within a regular analogue quartz i.e. no hairspring, balance wheel etc.

However, a quartz works via drive from a tiny little magnetic stepper rotor, which is itself driven by a magnetic field (generated by the coil), so yes, magnetism can interfere with that, potentially stopping or slowing the hands, but in most cases the watch will go back to normal as soon as the magnetic field from the outside source is removed, and the watch will carry on as normal thereafter, with little or no ill-effects (aside from being a little slow due to that period of stopping, perhaps).

Mechanicals are different, because the integral time-keeping parts can themselves become magnetised, such that they retain a level of magnetism, even after the outside magnetic source is long removed, hence why demagnetising is required.

I think most standard GS HAQ models already have a half-decent level of anti-magnetic capability as well, around 60 gauss, which will be fine to offer protection against the majority of magnets encountered daily e.g. fridge magnet or phone/ipad cover.

I wouldn’t worry.

Thanks for the reply, when you think how many things have magnets in it's hard to avoid them.

[200mwaterresistant]

£5.90 for your own demagnetizer and all your worries will melt away: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Watc...805133722.html

[PhilipJI]

£5.90 for your own demagnetizer and all your worries will melt away: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Watc...805133722.html

Thats got to be worth getting, just in case anything happens to any of my watches.

[ziphos]

£5.90 for your own demagnetizer and all your worries will melt away: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Watc...805133722.html

I got the European version of this when one of my watches was running about 1 minute per day fast. Demagnetising it brought that to a few seconds per day!

[me32dc]

Don't demagnetise quartz watches.

Also be very careful in using these cheap demagnetisers on mechanical watches, you have to use them properly or it will make it worse/damage the hairspring.

[Derivative]

Thanks for that answer, I was recently wondering the same thing as the OP.



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