Why Your Watch Is Magnetized (And How to Fix It at Home)

If your mechanical watch is suddenly running fast - gaining several minutes per day when it used to keep good time - there's a strong chance it's been magnetized. This is one of the most common issues with mechanical watches, and the good news is you can test for it and fix it yourself at home without any watchmaking experience. Here's what causes it, how to check, and how to demagnetize your watch in about thirty seconds.

Magnetism is everywhere now. Your phone has magnets in it. Your laptop has magnets. Tablet cases, handbag clasps, wireless chargers, those magnetic phone mounts in cars, fridge magnets obviously, even some jacket buttons. The hairspring inside your watch - that tiny coiled spring that regulates the timing - is incredibly thin and incredibly susceptible to magnetic fields. Get it near a strong enough magnet and the coils start sticking together. Shorter effective spring length means faster oscillation means your watch runs fast.

Sometimes dramatically fast. I've seen watches gain fifteen, twenty minutes a day because someone left them on a laptop speaker overnight. The speaker magnets in MacBooks are surprisingly strong and people rest their wrist right on that spot all the time without thinking.

Here's how to check if your watch is magnetized. Get a compass - a proper one or just the compass app on your phone works. Bring your watch close to it. If the needle swings towards your watch, congratulations, you've got a magnet on your wrist.

Now the fix. You need a demagnetizer. They're cheap - like fifteen quid on Amazon. Little plug-in device, looks like nothing special. You turn it on, pass your watch through it slowly a few times in different orientations, and that's it. The alternating magnetic field scrambles and neutralizes the magnetism in the hairspring. Check with your compass again - needle shouldn't move now.

Some tips: pass the watch through slowly, don't just wave it around. Go through the field, pull it away slowly while the device is still on. Do it a few times from different angles. You want to make sure you're hitting the movement from all directions.

There are also manual demagnetizers that don't need power - you basically drag the watch across them in a specific pattern. They work fine but I find the electric ones more foolproof.

Prevention is worth mentioning too. Try not to leave your watch on wireless chargers, near laptop speakers, or stuck to magnetic surfaces. If you've got a watch box with a magnetic clasp, make sure the magnets aren't right next to where the watches sit. Some people are paranoid about it but honestly, occasional exposure is usually fine - it's the prolonged contact that gets you.

Also worth knowing: some modern watches have antimagnetic movements. Omega's got their Master Chronometer stuff resistant to 15,000 gauss which is absurd overkill. Rolex uses Parachrom hairsprings. Various brands use silicon components that aren't affected by magnetism at all. If you're constantly around magnetic fields for work, might be worth looking into watches with these features.

But for most people, just own a demagnetizer. It's one of those tools that costs almost nothing, takes up no space, and saves you a trip to the watchmaker every time your watch starts running fast. Keep it in a drawer, forget about it until you need it, fix the problem in thirty seconds when it happens.

Genuinely one of the easiest watch problems to solve yourself.