Whether you’re polishing your magnetic death ray or powering up your Stargate, the effects of magnetic fields on your watch can be quite destructive. Back in the old days when scientists wore suits and nice watches to work, they would bring their timepieces too near certain pieces of equipment, rendering the movement useless. Rolex solved this by wrapping its movements in non-ferrous metal but their watch, the Milgauss, could only handle up to 1,000 Gauss.
That was then and this is now. Omega has decided to blow Rolex out of the water with their new Seamaster Aqua Terra. This watch movement is actually made of non-ferrous material that can stand up to 1.5 tesla or 15,000 gauss, about twice the magnetic output of a subwoofer, while an MRI can hit up to 70,000 at its peak. This, incidentally is what happens when you get metal near your MRI.
The watch is a fairly standard three-handed timepiece but the new movement, the 8508, is what makes it special. The watch will ship this spring with pricing to be determined (expect something in the $10,000 range if not lower). Sound a little pricey? Tell that to yourself when you accidentally fall through a magnetic space-time vortex and your Timex stops ticking.
