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Friday, April 27, 2012

Do It Yourself (DIY) Mechanical Watch Demagnetization -- Video

My kid magnetized my Seiko Orange Monster (SKX781).  I was sitting on the sofa minding my own business and he runs up and slaps a strong bar magnet he was using for his science fair project right on top of my watch.

It was just for a second, I thought.

Professional divers are anti-magnetic, I thought.

Well I was wrong.


The watch started running fast immediately.  I timed it over several days and it was about one minute fast per day.

Ruh-roh.

So after asking locally for someone to demagnetize and being disappointed in the responses (change the battery one person said to me), I decided to buy one of those demagnetizers off eBay.  It wasn't very expensive, especially since I sold my kid to the circus.  Not really, but maybe.

After waiting for weeks for the international shipment I was disappointed to find there were no instructions.  I went online and found some guidance.  I tested first with a magnetized screwdriver I had and it seemed to work fine.  So off I go to the watch.

First I found a compass in the house and was surprised to find that the watch was magnetized enough to deflect the compass needle.  Cool, now I had something to tell me immediately if the demagnetizer worked.

So I put the watch on the contraption and pressed the button.  Did this a few times with slightly different processes.  Ultimately, I got the watch case demagnetized but was very confused when I found that when I put it on the bracelet, it was magnetized again.  Eventually I figured out that one of the spring bars was also magnetized so a few hits on the demagnetizer and that was good to go too.

After one day of timing I was very happy to see that the accuracy was back down to less than 10 seconds per day.

Take that evil mechanical watch gnomes.

I made a video demonstration showing what I did.  Hopefully I can help some others.

Feel free to drop a comment or question.


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thanks!