How important is magnetic resistance to you when considering a watch?

I voted that I don't care, but I will tell you that it is a real problem that I face with pre-1950 watches. I have had a three or four get magnetized in the past few months. Without a de-magnetizer they would sit in a queue to go to the watch maker.

Interesting! Do you know what’s causing them to become magnetized?

I don't. There are magnets everywhere. I have one on a fountain pen cap. It seems to happen at my desk.

I never even knew this was a listed property outside a few ... oh, is this a tool watch thing?

is the process to demagnetize any more than just a pass or two over the demagnetizer? I see Amazon has several in the $12-$30 range. If the treatment is simple, cheap and easy, it almost seems not worth it to worry about, unless perhaps I worked at a particle accelerator or Hoover dam.

I've had a watch on my wrist for over 50 years - never had one get magnetized. Not saying it can't happen...but it has never happened to me.

I've heard that with vintage pocket watches, perhaps because larger, that pieces need disassembly and individual demagnetization.

I think most people don’t even realize how many magnets are around us these days. A wireless phone charger has a magnet, an Apple Watch charger has a magnet, an iPad/iphone flip case has a magnet, women’s purses have magnets, laptop hard drives use magnets, so do their speakers. I prefer a watch to have at least some antimagnetic properties. GS quotes an ISO 764 compliant level of 4800A/m which is only about 60 gauss. But enough to protect against most accidental magnetism.

You raise a very good point - as a white collar wage slave I'm wearing my watch near magnets 10,000% more than I'm jumping in the ocean with it. Is MR the new WR??

I don't know why, but I love the design of pretty much every anti-magnetic watch. The Milgauss is the only Rolex I actually look at and think "I want that"... the Railmaster is the only Omega I actually look at and think "I want that"... one day I actually will buy one of the anti-magnetic GS's just because they're weird and cool... I have a problem!

Do I actually need the functionality, I don't think so, although I certainly encounter strong magnets more often than I go to swimming pools. Maybe in some alternate universe, magnetic resistance is the big thing and water resistance is seen as a weird feature for specialists only.

I think the thing that actually makes MR appealing is that it's an excuse for brands to run with a 1950s retrofuturism style which, when done with just a bit of restraint, is incredibly sexy.

I accidentally magnetised one of my watches at the start of the year, stupidly left it on top of a tablet which is contained in a magnetic case. Also discovered that 2 of my other automatics were magnetised as well somehow.

All sorted, but did make it a bit more concerned about it. As others have said here, magnets are everywhere!

Have noticed more new watch releases recently make a bigger deal about magnetic resistance and some changing the balance spring material.

While it is not mandatory for a watch to have magnetic resistance for me to purchase, I do like antimagnetic protection and shock resistance to be present in my watches. A good faraday cage and/or movement protection is always good in my book.

The watches I wear most for field use tend to have one or both of these features.

Doesn't stop me from using my other watches, since watches are tools, but I now own a demagnetizer and use it from time to time.

Useful if you work around the Large Hadron Collider, but for most places it's probably not an issue.

Great for bragging rights.

Don't really care. I have only have to demag a watch once and it took less than a minute

I did the same thing with my pre-Metas 1861 Speedy having left it on my magnetic phone wallet case and only found out when I picked it up and realized that my Speedy was stuck to the case. After panicking a bit, I checked and the Speedy wasn't magnetized (I guess all those NASA tests were worth something).

Also, no knock on the Milgauss (which has its own historical roots which I really appreciate) but as others have pointed out before, if anti-magnetism is what you really care about, Metas certified watches have 15x the magnetic resistance (15,000 gauss) so get a Metas certified Omega or another Metas certified watch (like the new Tudor if you want to keep it in the family).

I don't work or live in a high magnetic environment, so not a huge concern for me

It doesn’t concern me, but prob will if I unknowingly pick something up that has a resistance to magnetism

Here's how much of a D&D nerd I am:

At first glance, I thought the title of this post was "How important is magic resistance to you when considering a watch?" 🤣🤣

If I lived in a magic-enabled world, I would want a high degree of magic resistance on my watch! 😎 Otherwise, a stray Magic Missile spell from a jealous Pixie might ruin my day! 🤣

15000 Gauss or go home 😎🖖🏻

Too true. Electromagnetic Radiation (EMR) and Radio Frequency fields of various power are more prevalent than ever in our modern age. But there is also a TON of other environmental factors to figure in on any effect on physiology.

I've accidentally magnetized some watches of mine through improper storage next to phones, tablets, speakers, etc. I've also worn some in places where I knew there were strong fields. Sometimes it magnetized the movement, others for whatever reason didn't. Too many variables I guess.

The way my layman mind understands, like with any type of radiation (ionizing, etc), it seems to always come back to Acute vs Chronic exposure.

Either the watch gets a whole bunch up front and magnetized, or it stacks over a period of small dosing every day.

I think it can be a big pain in the butt when you're traveling. (since you're not traveling with a demagnetizer)

And you have to go through the x-ray machine for security screening, which contains magnetic force.

I need a magnetic resist watch for work. I work around electronics strong enough to mess with my timepieces.

That’s a good point!

sheesh

a naive question I admit, but why do I need to care about , is the X-ray at the airport really one that could effect my watches. ( I have 3 that keep it at bay)

I used to work in an "environment" where we routinely ran our watch over the demagnitiser before going into a particular room as a magnitised watch could mess with the magnetic sensitive "things" in that room...

Think about it...

Mil...

...Gauss.

🤯

Sounds like technical work! 😜

I work in the hospital - only now do I realize how much the machines around me can slowly degrade my watch. Its either go quartz or metas imo. Making choices quite limited for an automatic. Would love to hear about others thoughts or am I worrying over nothing?

Strongly agree with the last part lol. Watchea are tools and i do forget that sometimes-it leads me to put down a certain watch as i dont want it to get damaged potentially but at the end of the day its just there to tell me the time.