I took off my watch the other night and laid it on top of the microwave. Next morning it had stopped. Amazingly 20 minutes before I put it on.The 20 minute thing is what makes me wonder about magnetism.
It is a cheap Vostok"Russian Military Watch"but it had worked perfectly before.
Can I demagnetize it myself?How about if I put my hand in one of Farm Kings theft strip demagnetizers?
That’s what happened. You’re screwed, probably, but try the demag-er first.
[tangent]
What model is it? I have the sub commander Amfibian (the good one–waterproof to 200m, 31-jewel movement, etc.). Not quite as accurate as my quartz Seiko Chronograph, but a helluva lot tougher (and no battery to run down! Ever! :D)[/tangent]
Wait! It’s only magnetized if you turned the nuker on. Did you try winding it? It may have just run down…Occam’s Razor and all that…
Gunslinger
I bought two. The one I apparently magnetized is the Tank commander. The other is the paratrooper. They are only good to twenty meters but thats OK so am I:)
When I first had problems it wouldn’t run at all. I reset the date several days later and it ran for about a minute. Now it only moves when I drop it.
Occam’s Razor???
Occam’s Razor: the simplest explanation is the most likely one.
They’re mechanical, wind-up watches, with a self-winding feature. Shake it around a bit and see if that helps, or pull out the crown (not as far as you do to set the time) and turn it clockwise to wind it.
Here’s a downloadable version of the owner’s manual (in English, even! :))
It’s unlikely you magnetized or otherwise “zapped” it via the microwave as the magnetotron does not put out a significant gauss field beyond the metal shell of the microwave and furthermore is required to be RF shielded by FCC regs.
If you suspect magnetism get it de-gaussed professionally. You can physically destroy your watch fairly quickly with a Radio Shack tape de-magnetizer if used improperly. I don’t know what a theft strip magnetizer would do. It would make an interesting visit to the store 'tho.
JW: Excuse me is that theft strip demagnetizer?
Clerk: A what?
JW: You know a demagnetizer. It deactivates the anti-theft strips.
Clerk: Yeah it’s the dinger. It turns them off. Why?
JW: Could you run my watch across it? I think a microwave
magnetized it.
Clerk: Well… I don’t know. Hey what kind of watch is that anyway?! You’re a commie ain’t cha? Mr. Vqapdindajar!! Come out here quick! There’s a commie messin with the dinger.
JW: Hey wait I just…
Mr V: A monkeyshining communist you say! My goodness me! We cannot have this. Where is my cane of enlightenment for this foolish fellow.
JW: It’s TIME to Go!
Damn Astro for a $20.00 watch??
Gunslinger got me to thinking so I reset the day and the damned thing started working. Then I read about how he said to wind the thing and so I tried it.Damned thing quit again.As I unscrewed the stem,these are different from most watches I’ve had, the thing started working again.
I dunno