If you have seen an EUTOUR watch and wondered what is holding the little steel balls onto the dial, the short answer is a magnet — and the balls are not loose.
What is actually happening under the dial
A conventional watch turns two hands around a central pivot. A magnetic ball bearing watch turns the same two arms, but the arms sit below the dial surface where you cannot see them. On the end of each arm is a magnet. Resting on top of the dial, directly above each magnet, is a polished steel ball.
As the movement rotates the arms, the magnets travel underneath the dial and each ball follows the magnet beneath it. What looks like a sphere gliding freely around the face is really a ball being led around a track by a magnet it never touches.
That is the whole trick. There is no motor in the ball, nothing electronic about the display, and nothing holding the ball in place except magnetism. It is a mechanical illusion, and it is why the movement feels smooth rather than stepped.
Which ball is which
On a two-ball EUTOUR watch such as the E024 Minimalist, the larger ball marks the hour and the smaller ball marks the minutes. They read against the dial exactly the way hands would — the difference is that you are comparing two ball sizes instead of two hand lengths.
What drives it
The display is the unusual part; the engine behind it is conventional watchmaking. Across the EUTOUR range you will find:
- Swiss RONDA quartz — including the RONDA 502 in several of the steel models
- Japanese MIYOTA quartz — used in the wooden watches and several women’s models
- Seiko NH35 automatic — a self-winding mechanical movement, in the J048
So accuracy is not affected by the magnetic display. A quartz EUTOUR keeps time the way any quartz watch does, because the timekeeping happens in the movement, not in the ball.
Variations on the idea
Not every model works the same way. The U061 Gravity uses a single hand against a dial of 241 micro-drilled positions rather than two orbiting balls. The E068 Navigator keeps the magnetic orbit but adds a printed numbered bezel, which makes it quicker to read if you would rather not learn a new dial at all.
Is it durable?
The steel balls sit in a recessed track and are held by magnets strong enough that normal wear does not dislodge them. Most steel models are rated 3ATM, with the 5ATM models — the E024-M series and the E030 — built for more active wear. Wooden models are not water resistant at all.
If you want to see the mechanism in person, the whole range is at men’s magnetic watches and women’s magnetic watches.