zOwie Omega Discussion Forum

: Hello Omega owners,

: I just found this forum searching for
: information on problems relating to
: magetism. I wear a Omega Speedmaster
: Automatic from the late 80s on a daily
: basis. Me and my wife own a few other
: mechanical watches. And I am sure there will
: be more in the future.
: I am now in need of a new laptop computer and
: started looking into buying my first Mac,
: possibly the new MacBook that just came out.
: What does that hav e to do with watches?
: Well, I found out that the new Apple
: MacBooks use magnets for their closing
: mechanism and to hold the powercord in
: place. That is nice and stylish, but I am a
: little concerned of having my watch
: constantly placed next to some sort of
: magents (not to speak of credit cards,
: keyless entry systems, tapes, disks, etc in
: a backpack or so).

: I called Apple and they had no technical
: information about the strength of those
: magnets and not even about their exact
: location. So there is no much data to work
: with at this point, but I was curious if any
: one here has any information or experiences
: with issues like this.

I've been wearing my Omegas around various home, office, and laboratory PC's for the past 3 1/2 years and have never had a problem with magnetism. Granted, none of these computers were from Apple, so I can't comment directly on any experiences with that brand.

The founder of this website did experience magnetization caused by computer disks and even the components that operated his car's power door locks, but I haven't experienced those problems either.

The good news about magnetization is that it can be corrected quickly and easily while you wait, and the watchmaker doesn't even need to take the watch apart to repair it. So, you can be cautious and just take your watch off before using your PC, or you can gamble and only pay a small sum of money to have your watch fixed if it does become magnetized. Either way you aren't risking doing any serious damage to your watch.