Reply With QuoteSounds like it's been magnetised. Buy one of those blue boxes with red button and DmIY.
My Omega Seamaster Professional (cal: 1164) of 2011 vintage is gaining over 3 seconds every minute, about 1.5 hours over a 24 hour period. The chrono second hand also runs 3+secs/min fast if started.
It doesn't get a lot of wrist time (too many other watches) but I recently decided to wear it for the day and found it to be running very fast. I thought it must have got magnetised so purchased one of those cheap de-maggers off ebay but it had absolutely no effect on the watch's accuracy.
Using a gauss meter app (which reads in micro Tesla (µT)!) and holding the watch to the phones sensor the emf level increases from a steady 53 µT to 151 µT. I've no idea if this means the watch is strongly magnetised or not (?).
I'm wondering how effective the ebay de-maggers are on thick cased watches - there's a lot of steel to penetrate. Should I keep trying with the ebay demagger - I'm worried about making the problem worse - or find a jeweller with a proper demagger and pay them to do it? Or, perhaps someone can tell me, given the µT readings, if I'm wasting my time, magnetism isn't the problem and I need to get the watch repaired.
Sounds like it's been magnetised. Buy one of those blue boxes with red button and DmIY.
I did - that's the cheap ebay demagger I mentioned in the post.Originally Posted by Normunds
Waving an Omega under a cheap e-bay demagnetiser would not be my first action, waving a good compass around the watch to see if they is any deviation might come before it. However, I have been there too OP. I had a watch that was dead on 0 SPD with a timegrapher, then screwed on the back and then hey presto +30 SPD on actual wearing , which the timegrapher confirmed. Took me a little bit of scratching head and then trying the compass trick that I realised the soft iron magnetic shield in the case back had actualy, become quite magnetised.
Then I looked up from timegrapher at the magnetic tool rack and realised only a real fool would absent mindedly use a screwdriver from said magnetic rack to lift up the case back from watch. I know, what a Wally. Magnetic tool rack has now been moved away from watch bench area and a cheap but not too cheap e-bay demagnetiser sorted out the case back and watch us now Bob on again. It was not an Omega though.
Leaving aside the chance of magnetisation has the watch had any knocks?
That sort of inaccuracy usually points to the hairspring, perhaps it has been contaminated with oil?
Cheers,
Neil.
No shocks from being dropped but I have used it while running and playing golf, though not recently. Hope it's not oil as it'll be a costly fix if it is. I'd run it down to a jewellers and ask them to run it though a proper demagger but all the ones near me are closed due to covid.
Apps on phones etc are a waste of time for detecting whether a watch has been magnetised. The case doesn`t get magnetised, its the internal components that are affected and it doesn`t take much to make a movement run fast.
The cheap demagnetisers do work, I used one for years before getting a slightly better one, if the watch has been demagnetised and it's still running fast it has other issues. If its a 2011 watch its not unreasonable to expect it to need servicing, but that doesn`t explain the sudden change in behaviour. Its possible that the hairspring has become snagged following an impact, removing and refitting the balance would rectify that but its a job for someone skilled in the art. Its possible that oil or contamination has reached the hairspring but that is unlikely to happen after 10 years, it usually results from meddling/ intervention by well-meaning monkeys.
The 1164 is a modified Valjoux 7750 so its straightforward, the only difficulty is the rotor bearing which is Omega-specific and not readily available (God knows why Omega did this), they don't wear out easily but storing a watch on a winder will hasten the demise of this part.
Not a job I`d choose to get involved with at the moment, too much other stuff taking my time up. That reminds me, my own Omega 1164 needs a service too, I`ll fit that in amongst the general pandemonium associated with my house as work progresses.
My Breil Manta (7750) had this issue.
Demagnetisation had no effect but a good slap in the palm of my hand solved it.
M
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Breitling Cosmonaute 809 - What's not to like?
Get it serviced.
Started out with nothing. Still have most of it left.
What phone have you got? If it's an iPhone 12 then it doesn't matter if it was magnetised before or not, it is now
!!! Really ???
This is quite plausible, Seikos in particular are prone to the the hairspring snagging and a sharp slap against the palm of the hand has been known to fix the problem. If that fails the balance has to be removed and refitted, that’s definitely not a job for a novice because its all too easy to wreck the hairspring or break the balance staff if its done wrongly.
The hairspring gets snagged if the watch gets a hard knock, but it depends on the position of the balance too. The hairspring flexes as it suffers sharp deceleration and if you’re unlucky it flexes far enough to get snagged. Its a 5 minute job to fix and a quick check on a timegrapher will confirm the watch us running OK again and allow positional checks to be carried out to look for evidence that the hairspring hasn’t suffered distortion.
Really.
I was skeptical, but it was gaining dramatically so I felt I had nothing to lose.
It worked a treat, the watch now keeps great time again!
M
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Breitling Cosmonaute 809 - What's not to like?
Wahoo! I think it worked :)
I Slapped the watch into my palm - well a sort of weak clap really but something inside vibrated like crazy - probably the winder.
I'm now timing it against a known accurate watch and it's kept the same time to the second over the last 3 hours. I also checked the chrono and that's running accurately as well.
Looks like this 'slap fix' may have worked. It reminds me of years ago when I used to build/repair PCs - a good kick would often get a sticking hard drive spinning again.
Fingers crossed it stays accurate and thanks for the tip snowman.
Very interesting and great result eyespy. Reminds me.of childhood when the tv went wrong my dad phoned Radio Rentals who advised hitting it hard on the side - which also worked
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Great to hear it seems to have some success.
Let us know how it goes.
M
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Breitling Cosmonaute 809 - What's not to like?
Good stuff.
The hairspring was obviously hung up.
Cheers,
Neil.
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