A motor has an armature disposed on one of a rotor and a stator and a permanent magnet disposed on the other of the rotor and the stator. The permanent magnet has skewed magnetic poles being magnetized so that a boundary between each pair of skewed magnetic poles is generally S-shaped and opposed areas of pole surfaces of the permanent magnet and the armature gradually increase when the pole surface of the permanent magnet enters a magnetic field region of the pole surface of the armature or gradually decrease when the pole surface of the permanent magnet leaves a magnetic field region of the pole surface of the armature.