Mechanical watches in Electric locos

[33EJB]

One for any fellow drivers on here, probably more freight than passenger.

Does any one wear a mechanical watch to work? I'm looking at buying one rather than quartz, but reading on the subject they can be affected by magnetic fields.

There are i would think some fairly substantial magnetic fields in equipment corridors of locos, with all the transformers etc.

I don't mind if it means it would lose/gain a few more seconds a week, but if it's going to be randomly stopping or leaping forward for several minutes at a time, then it might pose more of a problem.

Just wondered if anyone had any experiences? and if so is your watch specifically marked as 'antimagnetic'.

So far everyone i've spoken to at work has either quartz or digital.

 

[DaleCooper]

I'm not a driver but it's very unlikely (probably impossible) that a mechanical watch would jump forward and I doubt that any magnetic field you come across would stop one, if it did it would probably wipe your credit cards as well. Don't forget that a quartz analogue watch has many similar moving parts to a mechanical watch as well as a solenoid which would be susceptible to a magnetic field.

Having said all that I would choose quartz for accuracy, mechanical for style!

 

[Pinza-C55]

I'm not a driver but it's very unlikely (probably impossible) that a mechanical watch would jump forward and I doubt that any magnetic field you come across would stop one, if it did it would probably wipe your credit cards as well. Don't forget that a quartz analogue watch has many similar moving parts to a mechanical watch as well as a solenoid which would be susceptible to a magnetic field.

Having said all that I would choose quartz for accuracy, mechanical for style!

I used to work the test trains with the Class 91s in the late eighties and it was said that if went through the power compartment your credit card would be wiped. Don't know if it was true mind.

 

[Ash Bridge]

I used to work the test trains with the Class 91s in the late eighties and it was said that if went through the power compartment your credit card would be wiped. Don't know if it was true mind.

No mention of watches but I seem to recall warning notices on the internal access doors of the APT-P intermediate powercars advising that heart pacemakers could be adversely affected when passing through the equipment corridors.

 

[Kristofferson]

If you need a (probably literally) bulletproof watch, you can't go wrong with the iconic Casio F-91W! Yes it's digital, but they lose very little time compared to their contemporaries and will outlive cockroaches when the apocalypse comes

Yes, Osama bin Liner had one, but don't let that put you off!

 

[33EJB]

I'm not a driver but it's very unlikely (probably impossible) that a mechanical watch would jump forward and I doubt that any magnetic field you come across would stop one,

Having said all that I would choose quartz for accuracy, mechanical for style!

Apparently the springs in them can become magnetised, and the coils stick together, which throws the watch out. Easily cured with a demagnetiser, but i don't want to be doing that every time i key up. I can't find anything that says how quickly watches can be magnetised.

Quartz is always going to be more accurate, but i don't mind checking the time once a week. Losing a few seconds a week wont matter in real terms, but minutes per day would.

No mention of watches but I seem to recall warning notices on the internal access doors of the APT-P intermediate powercars advising that heart pacemakers could be adversely affected when passing through the equipment corridors.

They're still there on our locos.

If you need a (probably literally) bulletproof watch, you can't go wrong with the iconic Casio F-91W! Yes it's digital, but they lose very little time compared to their contemporaries and will outlive cockroaches when the apocalypse comes

Yes, Osama bin Liner had one, but don't let that put you off!

Agreed, and they're popular with my colleagues, but they're also quite ugly (the Casio's, not my colleagues)

 

[Pigeon]

Mechanical watches can be affected by parts becoming permanently magnetised so they stick to each other and do not move freely. Things like steel hairsprings in particular.

To do this you need a powerful steady magnetic field, as from a powerful permanent magnet such as the one in a speaker.

The stray field around transformers and other AC electrical equipment is an alternating magnetic field, and moreover one which decays gradually to insignificant levels as you walk away from it. This kind of field profile is that used in degaussing devices - gadgets which wipe out permanent magnetic fields. For instance they are fitted to CRT TVs and monitors to prevent accidental magnetisation of the CRT causing colour distortion - this is what goes thunnnggggg when you turn them on. So your watch will be just fine, magnetic cards less so.

Alternating magnetic fields are also good at inducing stray electrical currents in other things, which is what the problem with pacemakers is.

Also, I am not aware of any tales of drivers having problems with their watches in electric locos before digital watches were invented. I am pretty sure it would have been notorious if it had been a problem!

 

[NSEFAN]

If the entire watch casing is conductive, then would this not act like a faraday cage and protect the mechanism?

I have heard stories of sysadmins taking backup tapes home with them on the tube every night, only to find upon reading the tapes that the data was mostly corrupted. It was blamed on the tube's electric motors, and putting the tapes in a bag on the floor of the carriage!

 

[Pigeon]

If the entire watch casing is conductive, then would this not act like a faraday cage and protect the mechanism?

No - that only applies in the case of electric fields (and it's a lot harder there to achieve complete shielding than people think). Here we're concerned about magnetic fields, which are even harder to screen out. Ferromagnetic materials will do the job partially but you need a superconductor to go all the way.

I have heard stories of sysadmins taking backup tapes home with them on the tube every night, only to find upon reading the tapes that the data was mostly corrupted. It was blamed on the tube's electric motors, and putting the tapes in a bag on the floor of the carriage!

Yes. It happens...

 

[LowLevel]

AWS magnets were always the thing I was warned about with cards, phones and watches!

 

[HSTfan!!!]

If you need a (probably literally) bulletproof watch, you can't go wrong with the iconic Casio F-91W! Yes it's digital, but they lose very little time compared to their contemporaries and will outlive cockroaches when the apocalypse comes

Yes, Osama bin Liner had one, but don't let that put you off!

That's what I wear to work, things literally bulletproof, can't fault it!

 

[Islineclear3_1]

Maybe with the early electro-mechanical watches that used a tuning fork to drive the gear train rather than a steel spring....but then there probably weren't as many magnetic fields back then

 

[33EJB]

No - that only applies in the case of electric fields (and it's a lot harder there to achieve complete shielding than people think). Here we're concerned about magnetic fields, which are even harder to screen out. Ferromagnetic materials will do the job partially but you need a superconductor to go all the way.



Yes. It happens...

The specifically marked 'Anti-magnetic', watches have a soft iron casing within the main case apparently. So this acts as a faraday cage, they also have a second iron disc behind the stainless steel rear cover. I would assume they put something behind the face too. Ball make some 'engineer's watches (US terminology for train driver), which apparently have a really high resistance to magnetism, it's a shame they're both expensive and not especially easy to read. Apparently they made them anti-magnetic when Diesel locos where introduced, as they become more magnetic, but i can't say when i've opened the bonnet on a diesel car, i've seen the engine covered swarf from the environment clinging to it, so presumably it's more to do with Diesel 'electric', having transformers and motors in them.

Maybe i'm just reading too much into it, presumably a quartz crystal can be affected just as easily by exposing it to a big electric field, make it vibrate more quickly or something?

 

[Jamesb1974]

Deleted

 

[33EJB]

No I completely agree. The model I'm actually looking at is the ball trainmaster 60 seconds.

http://www.ballwatch.com/global/index.php?option=com_collections&task=detail&id=616&lang=

I spent ages looking at pilots watches which nearly fit the bill, but then by chance came across the Ball, which is in effect designed as a train drivers watch! I'd not thought to search for train drivers watch.

It has all 60 minutes marked on the face with a number so is easy to read to the minute. And has active tritium gas vials so is very bright in the dark and doesn't need to be recharged by exposing it to light.

I accept I'm going to have to adjust it every week, I don't mind that. But I was more concerned if it was basically going to go haywire every time I walked through the equipment corridor.

 

[DelW]

I accept I'm going to have to adjust it every week, I don't mind that. But I was more concerned if it was basically going to go haywire every time I walked through the equipment corridor.

Quartz watches only became affordable and widespread in the mid to late 1970s, by which time diesel and electric locos had been around for at least a couple of decades. I don't remember any widespread concerns about the effects on mechanical watches which were the norm when those locos were introduced. Of course at that time we weren't used to quartz accuracy, drift of a minute a day or so wasn't unusual.

Hamilton also make a range of mechanical watches branded as 'railroad' watches, but I don't know whether that is anything more than a branding reference back to the days when they supplied (US) railways with pocket watches.

 

[Jamesb1974]

Deleted.

 

[33EJB]

To be honest I wasn't really bothered about the railway connection. I just wanted a dated automatic watch with easily readable minutes, the ball perfectly needs that criteria. I have a citizen Eco drive with the minutes marked at the 5, 10, 15.... Positions rather than the hour and it's not bad but the hands aren't quite long enough to make it obvious when you're between one of the numbered markers.

It's true in around the 60's electric and diesel locos were prevalent along with mechanical watches, but the ball website states that railway watches of the era became magnetically shielded. Which they still do on their engineers watches, but annoyingly not on the train master.

I'll probably get a new one. No worries about servicing for a while and no risk of a fake.