Magnet strength of the Milanese Loop

[Armen]

I know some of you along with myself were wondering how strong the magnet is on the Milanese loop. I just finished listening to a iMore podcast covering the Apple watch and that question came up.

Georgia was at the show and she said she put the Milanese loop on really tightly and flexed her wrist to see if she could get the magnet to move/slide from it's place and the outcome was a NO. She said you have to literally peel the magnet off to move it to another spot.

I hope this helps.

 

[CharlieCat666]

Thank you! I was definitely a little worried about that.

 

[Wallabe]

If someone were to steal the watch from you by yanking it while you're wearing it, it will come off.

My best guess is it uses a Neodymium magnet. It's strong, but not impossible. For normal everyday use, including moderate exercise, it will hold.

For people with pacemakers, be careful.

 

[comptr]

I know some of you along with myself were wondering how strong the magnet is on the Milanese loop. I just finished listening to a iMore podcast covering the Apple watch and that question came up.

Georgia was at the show and she said she put the Milanese loop on really tightly and flexed her wrist to see if she could get the magnet to move/slide from it's place and the outcome was a NO. She said you have to literally peel the magnet off to move it to another spot.

I hope this helps.

Well that is good news.

 

[Blakjack]

I mean come on now. I don't know why any of you worry about the magnet strength with Apple. They created a band that attaches via magnets. Hopefully they had enough sense to make sure the magnets were strong enough for all occasions.

 

[kdarling]

Are such magnets strong enough to wipe a credit card stripe, if you were to accidentally brush your wrist across your wallet?

Normally these are used in cases that don't come near a wallet, but a watch is different.

 

[2macORnot2mac]

Are such magnets strong enough to wipe a credit card stripe, if you were to accidentally brush your wrist across your wallet?

Normally these are used in cases that don't come near a wallet, but a watch is different.

Who carries credit cards anymore when they'll be on your watch.

 

[Lennyvalentin]

Are such magnets strong enough to wipe a credit card stripe, if you were to accidentally brush your wrist across your wallet?

No.

First off, card strips require quite a bit more magnetism to damage/wipe than most people believe (or so I've heard anyway, heh); this sounds reasonable, as you don't want the strip to be too fragile or it won't work when you need it to.

Second, the magnets for the clasp are housed in a metal enclosure, this will cause the field lines to closely conform to the housing (and incidentally, also strengthen the connective force of the clasp). So leakage should be fairly low. You might not want to rest your card against the outside of the clasp for hours, but handling your card in a normal fashion is completely safe.

Anyway... Why don't they have chip terminals in the US yet? Magnetic strips are just terrible and should be outlawed, as they promote CC fraud.

 

[bumpylumpy]

The magnetic stripe on cards that not re-written, like credit cards, are relatively difficult to demagnetize.

The stripe on cards which are re-written, like hotel cards, are very easily demagnetized and will likely be affected by the watch. Just be careful and keep those items apart.

I know for example, that back when I owned a Blackberry, the smart leather case it came in had a magnet on the front which was used to switch the Blackberry into sleep mode when it was sheathed. That magnetic was strong enough to demagnetize pretty much every hotel card I ever got; I had to separate my phone and wallet after that. My credit cards were never affected.

 

[dontwalkhand]

No.

First off, card strips require quite a bit more magnetism to damage/wipe than most people believe (or so I've heard anyway, heh); this sounds reasonable, as you don't want the strip to be too fragile or it won't work when you need it to.

Second, the magnets for the clasp are housed in a metal enclosure, this will cause the field lines to closely conform to the housing (and incidentally, also strengthen the connective force of the clasp). So leakage should be fairly low. You might not want to rest your card against the outside of the clasp for hours, but handling your card in a normal fashion is completely safe.

Anyway... Why don't they have chip terminals in the US yet? Magnetic strips are just terrible and should be outlawed, as they promote CC fraud.

We do have chip terminals, at Walmart, with more and more being enabled as time passes. By October we are required to have chip terminals enabled at more than 80% of retailers.

 

[OllyW]

Who carries credit cards anymore when they'll be on your watch.

Probably the people who don't live in the one country where Apple Pay is available.

 

[twisted-pixel]

We do have chip terminals, at Walmart, with more and more being enabled as time passes. By October we are required to have chip terminals enabled at more than 80% of retailers.

from what I rad however, the US is going chip and signature..not chip and pin

so stealing/cloning someone's card is still a viable option.

 

[dontwalkhand]

from what I rad however, the US is going chip and signature..not chip and pin

so stealing/cloning someone's card is still a viable option.

You still can't clone a chip, the chip uses cryptograms, that use one time use codes for transactions. Some banks do offer Chip & PIN, but majority have gone with Chip & Signature.

As for stealing a card, people could always write the numbers down on a Chip & PIN card as they do today., and hit Amazon.

It looks like Visa and MasterCard have been forcing those pesky European train kiosks to accept No CVM, which should allow US Chip & Sig cards to work there finally.

 

[twisted-pixel]

You still can't clone a chip, the chip uses cryptograms, that use one time use codes for transactions. Some banks do offer Chip & PIN, but majority have gone with Chip & Signature.

As for stealing a card, people could always write the numbers down on a Chip & PIN card as they do today., and hit Amazon.

It looks like Visa and MasterCard have been forcing those pesky European train kiosks to accept No CVM, which should allow US Chip & Sig cards to work there finally.

my point was more that stealing a card in the US would still give me a card I can use in most shops...I have the card and the signature.

stealing one in the UK doesn't...I don't have the pin

 

[Joe HS]

You still can't clone a chip, the chip uses cryptograms, that use one time use codes for transactions. Some banks do offer Chip & PIN, but majority have gone with Chip & Signature.

As for stealing a card, people could always write the numbers down on a Chip & PIN card as they do today., and hit Amazon.

It looks like Visa and MasterCard have been forcing those pesky European train kiosks to accept No CVM, which should allow US Chip & Sig cards to work there finally.

Do american banks not have the 'verified by visa' web verification where you're asked for three random characters from your online banking password when ordering for a new address or when adding a card to an account like on amazon for the first time?

 

[dontwalkhand]

Do american banks not have the 'verified by visa' web verification where you're asked for three random characters from your online banking password when ordering for a new address or when adding a card to an account like on amazon for the first time?

I've noticed a few places do, including the Fandango app. but a lot of places don't.

 

[Lennyvalentin]

By October we are required to have chip terminals enabled at more than 80% of retailers.

About time; in Europe, chipped credit/debit cards have been commonplace for like...ten years now? They can be a bit glitchy when they wear too just like those magnetic strips though, so from a reliability standpoint they're not ideal either.

Then again, contactless solutions apparantly have their own ways of glitching as well, so nothing is perfect, heh.

 

[Armen]

Love the thread went from magnet strip to CC security.

 

[Donoban]

Are such magnets strong enough to wipe a credit card stripe, if you were to accidentally brush your wrist across your wallet?

Normally these are used in cases that don't come near a wallet, but a watch is different.

Credit card stripes are like so 20th century.

 

[hemolyzer]

Are such magnets strong enough to wipe a credit card stripe, if you were to accidentally brush your wrist across your wallet?

Normally these are used in cases that don't come near a wallet, but a watch is different.

This is actually a hidden feature of the Milanese loop with Apple trying to push people over to Apple Pay.