Weird Watch Stuff.

[Zoidburg]

This morning I attended a job interview wearing my Seiko automatic watch, the building that the interview in was small and pokey but also crammed full of communications equipment complete with two great big radio/mobile phone masts out side and various other gubbins, 3 phase and breaker boxes being rather abundant.

When I emerged from the interview 30 minutes later my watch had somehow managed to wind it self forward 5 hours.

EM signature tastic.

[plum]

There is the theory of the Mobius.

[Zoidburg]

Hmmm...being an old self winder it has never actualy needed a battery, it does not contain one.

Thanks for that technical hint any way.

 

[Oaky]

Have you checked to see if you have developed any super-powers since then?

[Little Jim]

You were actually abducted by alliens and they have erased the missing 4 1/2 hours from your memory.

[clarion]

Let's do the Timewarp again!

[Zoidburg]

I know it was working because I set it this morning, I checked it before I went in and it was bang on.

Even if the adjustment had been sticking out just brushing against it would not wind it on by 5 hours.

[Thor]

If EMR in this  building can do that to a mechanical watch, you probably don't want to work there 

[plum]

From which there is no escape

[border-rider]

I've had a quartz analogue watch visibly accelerate in a high magnetic field strength on a few occasions, but it needed a disconcertingly high field - of an intensity that could heat steel railings to a dull red heat (they're usually cut into 1 m lengths to prevent this).  It also needs a low frequency - mains or a few hundred Hz.  Mobile radio stuff wont do it.

It'd be quite surprising to encounter an electromagnetic field that could accelerate an old self-winder outside of a steel foundry or a power station.  Certainly anywhere that meets human exposure limits it shouldn't happen.

Did you get the job ? Sure you want to work there ?

edit: cross post with Thor

[Zoidburg]

Not wanting the job in particular.

Looked like hell on earth.

[hellymedic]

Hmmm...being an old self winder it has never actualy needed a battery, it does not contain one.

Thanks for that technical hint any way.

 

Are you sure?
I thought the Seiko Kinetic contained a charge-holding device. I'm not sure if that's a capacitor or a battery but it's not purely mechanical.

[Zoidburg]

Hmmm...being an old self winder it has never actualy needed a battery, it does not contain one.

Thanks for that technical hint any way.

 

Are you sure?
I thought the Seiko Kinetic contained a charge-holding device. I'm not sure if that's a capacitor or a battery but it's not purely mechanical.

Seiko "Automatic"

Not the newer "Kinetic"

The first is an old self winder, the second is a self charger.

[plum]

A twist in the fabric of space where time becomes a loop.

[Rhys W]

You'd think that if the EM field was strong enough to wind it on 5 hours, it would be strong enough to pull the thing of your wrist altogether...

[border-rider]

That would require a f'off big static field of a magnitude you'd really only get close to a superconducting magnet or a seriously big DC electromagnet.

The alternating magnetic flux density needed to mess up a stepper motor in a quartz analogue watch is about 1000 times smaller than that.  I dunno what's messed up ZB's watch, but if it's an EM field it's more likely to be an alternating one: it's the rate-of-change of field that's usually the culprit, so the higher the frequency (within certain bounds) the bigger the effect.

[Sergeant Pluck]

This morning I attended a job interview wearing my Seiko automatic watch

Many is the time I have set a mechanical watch while preoccupied with something else, taken great care to synchronise the second hand with the source, and later found myself to have set it precisely 5 minutes /  x hours / some other dial marking out.

[inc]

This morning I attended a job interview wearing my Seiko automatic watch,

When I emerged from the interview 30 minutes later my watch had somehow managed to wind it self forward 5 hours.

That's some wrist action required, the mind boggles !!

[rogerzilla]

Rule 34.

[Hot Flatus]

When I emerged from the interview 30 minutes later my watch had somehow managed to wind it self forward 5 hours.

Did you have a headache afterwards and were your y-fronts on back to front?

[Zoidburg]

That would require a f'off big static field of a magnitude you'd really only get close to a superconducting magnet or a seriously big DC electromagnet.

The alternating magnetic flux density needed to mess up a stepper motor in a quartz analogue watch is about 1000 times smaller than that.  I dunno what's messed up ZB's watch, but if it's an EM field it's more likely to be an alternating one: it's the rate-of-change of field that's usually the culprit, so the higher the frequency (within certain bounds) the bigger the effect.

They do have a mast that I think carries roving frequency secure radio chatter for the local fuzz and emergency services.

[Adrian]

When I emerged from the interview 30 minutes later my watch had somehow managed to wind it self forward 5 hours.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/P7-hpQcrME0&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/P7-hpQcrME0&rel=1</a>

[border-rider]

They do have a mast that I think carries roving frequency secure radio chatter for the local fuzz and emergency services.

That def. won't be able to affect your watch. 

[Zoidburg]

Lot of other stuff in there, all stuffed in to a building like a village hospital(which I think it was at some stage), CCTV control centre, a lot of desk tops and a server etc tec.

It's just strange, the watch was reading correctly because I used it make sure I turned up on time, you have to pop the dial out and turn it once per hour to advance the hands. Only forward moement disengages the hands though, it keeps ticking until you turn, maybe a tiny pawl was disengaged and it advanced it self somehow.

[bikenerd]

Are you sure you didn't knock it on the way to the interview?  I knocked my Seiko 5 once and it had a bit of an accelerated moment but settled down again.  IIRC, it advanced 14 hours.