M
Mechanicals
M
Mechanicals
Guide to
Affordable Mechanicals
Anti-magnetic tips for mechanical watch owners.
First of all congratulations are in order for being a vested member of the mechanical counter-culture. I refer to those who understand our Neo Luddite love for ticking timekeepers, the quiet beat of the escapement, the cadenced‘ crawl’ of the second hand, the frenetic swing of the visible balance wheel. These are the visceral stimuli that attract us to the nonelectric world of watches.
Since we choose to‘ go mechanical’ we thought a few tips and education would be in order.
Problem: Inadvertently magnetizing your watch. Mobile phones, microwave ovens, speakers, medical testing equipment, blow dryers and even electric razors and hair shears can all have a deleterious effect on the accuracy of a mechanical watch. While there are dozens of other sources of magnetic fields, proximity, duration and intensity of the field are the variables to consider. It’ s true that the weak electro-magnetic field of a mobile phone won’ t instantly stop your watch, but over time there can be a cumulative effect that degrades accuracy – and even the running power reserve.
Solution A: Protect against magnetizing your watch. Be aware of where you leave your watch and the environment you wear it in. Don’ t let your watch sit on top of a computer, monitor or television for an extended length of time. Avoiding all magnetic fields in our electronic age is near impossible, but you can minimize the effect on your automatic or manual wind mechanical watch by avoiding prolonged proximity to those devices that generate magnetic fields.
Solution B: Buy a watch designed to be resistant to magnetic influence. The vast majority of mechanical watches manufactured today use hair springs and main springs manufactured with anti-magnetic alloys. These alloys have been developed to resist magnetization, but still contain enough ferrous metals that they can and do in-fact become magnetized over time or severe exposure. Kicking the anti-magnetism up a notch, certain watches will house an inner iron‘ cage’ to abrogate the effects of magnetism. Still others might use a non-magnetic alloy for their balance / hair springs. Rolex’ s Parachrom eschews all ferrous metals in its own hair spring alloy, and Ulysse Nardin and others have turned to silicium( silicon) as another option to improve resistance. A fair number of examples on the affordable end of the spectrum exist including Techne and Dievas( both available at www. longislandwatch. com) among others. In most cases the added resistance in the more affordable options is the simpler iron‘ cage’ method.
Solution C: Degauss Most watchmakers will have a de-magnetizing device called a degausser. Once magnetism has been confirmed as the culprit, it’ s usually a fairly quick and straightforward procedure to fix.
8 | AboutTime Magazine